j^/Ct^y 
 
 *y
 
 THE 
 
 WILLIAM ARTHUR. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR AT THE 
 WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE, 
 
 2 CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD, 
 
 AND SOLD AT 66 PATEENOSTER ROW. 
 
 1876. 
 
 [All rights reserved. ]
 
 PRINTED BV BA1.I.ANTYNB, HANSON, AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON
 
 SIK FRANCIS LYCETT, 
 
 MY OLD, TRIED, AND DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 Folume 
 
 IS INSCRIBED.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 AT the time of Mr Ouseley's death, his papers were 
 in the hands of his nephew, the late Alderman 
 Bonsall, of Dublin. He was to prepare and arrange 
 them for the late Rev. Thomas Jackson, who had 
 undertaken to write a Biography, after he should 
 have completed his Life of Charles Wesley. But his 
 designation to the office of Theological Tutor at 
 Richmond compelled him to write to Mr Bonsall, 
 reluctantly withdrawing from the task. The latter 
 then declined to give up the papers to any other 
 person. 
 
 In this state of things, the Irish Methodist Con- 
 ference requested the late Rev. William Reilly to 
 prepare a Biography. His Memorial of Mr Ouseley 
 will ever remain a faithful and affectionate record of 
 his venerated colleague ; but, though all which the 
 materials then at command enabled him to produce, 
 it was necessarily defective in the information, which 
 was to be had only from Mr Ouseley's own documents.
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 Twenty years have now elapsed since Dr Robinson 
 Scott extracted from me a promise that I should 
 attempt to prepare a Biography, if Mr Bonsall placed 
 the papers at my disposal. This he at once consented 
 to do, but said it would still require a considerable 
 time to arrange them. Year after year passed on ; 
 and at the time of his death he had not completed 
 his task. It proved that he had not only written out 
 at full all that he had himself taken down from the 
 lips of his uncle, but also recast the matter, framing 
 a more complete narrative. The latter often supplies 
 links of connection, and items of explanation, with- 
 out which the original notes would have been hardly 
 intelligible. He had, moreover, undertaken to copy 
 out letters, even printed ones, from magazines, mis- 
 sionary notices, and newspapers; and it might have 
 still taken him years to complete all that his love 
 and veneration for Mr Ouseley would have led him 
 to do, before handing over his materials. 
 
 At the death of Mr Bonsall, the papers fell into 
 the hands of Mr R. Moynan, who, with his excellent 
 wife a grand-niece of Ouseley, and a daughter of 
 the Rev. Arthur Noble, one of Mr Ouseley's most re- 
 spected colleagues speedily, and with the greatest 
 cordiality, placed them in the hands of the Rev. John 
 Hay. To him the work of preparing them for me 
 was a labour of love, and with loving diligence was
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 it performed. He arranged, classified, and indexed 
 the entire mass of materials. He culled out all the 
 bits of strictly original matter belonging to Mr 
 Ouseley himself. There were altogether twenty- 
 eight manuscript-books, besides numbers of lesser 
 documents, copies of writings, and so on. 
 
 It is now more than eighteen months since the 
 papers came into my hands. The task of dealing 
 with so much manuscript has been for me one of 
 great physical difficulty. Even in reading printed 
 books I am obliged, not only to use spectacles, but 
 a large hand-glass, such as people employ in looking 
 at photographs. Consequently, I have often been 
 ready to despond. Had I been willing to make two 
 portly volumes, it could have been comparatively soon 
 done. Letters, journals, and extracts from writings 
 would have easily filled up the space. But I felt 
 that it would be a disservice to the cause of God to 
 bury Gideon Ouseley in a big book, and that if I 
 attempted the work at all, I must master my material 
 and try to give the life and soul of it in as small 
 a compass as possible. This I have attempted, 
 and am now thankful that, however ill, the. work is 
 done. 
 
 One of the most valuable portions of the book will 
 be found to consist in contributions from different 
 gentlemen, who knew Mr Ouseley and describe him
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 in action. These are, one by one, acknowledged 
 as they are inserted, and I here beg personally to 
 tender my thanks to every one of those who have 
 rendered me this important help. To Mr Hay, whose 
 labours have been altogether special, I can only re- 
 peat my brotherly and affectionate acknowledgments. 
 The Rev. Oliver M'Cutcheon took the pains of making 
 a journey to Dunmore, and collected local information 
 with the greatest possible accuracy. 
 
 Many readers will blame me for not correcting 
 loose sentences, and local idioms ; and probably they 
 will be right in doing so. But I felt as if any such 
 editing would take away from the reality of the 
 book. We have here the talk of a man who tried to 
 convey great truths into the hearts of the people by 
 the very tones, terms, and phrases which they would 
 have themselves employed. What he wrote would 
 often be written late at night, in a poor room, by 
 the light of a small tallow candle. So I have left 
 the "shalls" and the "wills," the " woulds " and 
 the " shoulds," with all their kith and kin, just where 
 I found them. They who cannot approve, must for- 
 give me. 
 
 If I have said something of physical difficulty in 
 preparing this book, I must acknowledge that, 
 mentally and religiously, the task has been a very 
 delightful one. From the first time that Mr Hay
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 went over the papers with me to the present moment 
 I never had a doubt that, if God spared me to com- 
 plete the work, He would make it a blessing. Many 
 of its pages will be found full of defects, but every 
 page will go out with prayers, that it may be made 
 a means of raising up other Gideon Ouseleys. In 
 these prayers I believe that I shall be joined and 
 here affectionately ask that I may be joined by 
 those who will take an interest in the work, from love 
 to the memory of Mr Ouseley, and from the higher 
 motive of love to the work of God. 
 
 Let me take the liberty of adding one word, out of 
 pure self-interest. I am not open to applications to 
 write biographies, and wish to be spared the pains of 
 declining. Already I am pledged to more work, 
 either by promise or by commencements made, than 
 I have any reasonable prospect of living to complete. 
 Besides, working for a biography is working on 
 manuscripts ; and many times during my labour on 
 the Ouseley papers have I been reminded that it 
 would be wrong ever to enter into any fresh engage- 
 ment of the sort. 
 
 WM. ARTHUR. 
 
 December 1875.

 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGB 
 
 I. HIS BIRTHPLACE AND FAMILY . . ' :. . . 1 
 
 II. FROM BIRTH TO MARRIAGE . . . . 5 
 
 III. FROM MARRIAGE TO THE EVE OF HIS CONVERSION . 12 
 
 IV. HIS CONVERSION . . i . . . . 24 
 V. FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS .... 48 
 
 VI. RESIDENCE AND LABOURS IN BALLYMOTE AND SLIGO 67 
 
 VII. FORMAL CALL INTO THE MISSION-FIELD . . ' . 78 
 
 VIII. OPENING OF HIS CAREER AS A MISSIONARY .' . 87 
 IX. FURTHER COURSE OF LABOUR IN COMPANY WITH 
 
 CHARLES GRAHAM . . . . v . . 106 
 X. FURTHER MISSIONARY LABOURS IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 MR GRAHAM . 120 
 
 XI. CLOSE OF THE UNITED LABOURS OF GRAHAM AND 
 
 OUSELEY . ... . . . . . 152 
 
 XII. LABOURS IN CONNECTION WITH MR WILLIAM HAMILTON 159 
 
 XIII. LABOURS IN CONNECTION WITH MESSRS NELSON, 
 
 REILLY, AND OTHERS ... . . . 187 
 
 XIV. VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS 208 
 
 XV. HIS OLD AGE ..... i .. 264 
 
 XVI. MRS OUSELEY AND SIR RALPH ... . . 297 
 
 XVII. CONCLUSION . 303
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIS BIRTHPLACE AND FAMILY. 
 
 DUNMORE, the name of the place where Gideon 
 Ouseley was born, means the Great Fort. Perhaps, 
 when Connor, King of Munster, took the "fortress of 
 Dunmore " in 1133, and burned it, the stronghold 
 may have been of some importance. It has left a 
 sturdy ruin, seated in a pleasant vale, in the north- 
 east of the county of Galway, about ten miles from 
 Tuam, on the way to Castlereagh in Roscommon, and 
 not far from the borders of Mayo. 
 
 The town, however, never grew to any consider- 
 able size. At present, though still enjoying the name 
 of a town in Connaught, it has rather less than six 
 hundred inhabitants. It was never so much as heard 
 of a couple of years ago. In 1873 a farmer saw 
 a black mass on the surface of the fields, which 
 seemed approaching, as if the ground had changed 
 colour, and was moving. It proved that the bog, 
 which lay some two miles above the town, had 
 broken bounds, and was slipping down the course of 
 the stream which runs through the place. It swept
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 away a few farmhouses, submerged some hundreds 
 of acres of land, and threatened the little town. 
 So, for once, all the journals had news, and the illus- 
 trated ones pictures, from Dunmore. 
 
 Besides the church, chapel, and market-house, the 
 only building which could be named, even by a 
 guide-book, is the cavalry barrack, which must not 
 be omitted here, on account of its connection with 
 our history. It was originally a hunting-lodge of 
 Lord Ross an extinct title of the Gore family not 
 to be confounded with that of Rosse, which the 
 scientific tastes of the Parsons family have associated 
 with the stars. 
 
 Some hundred years ago, Duumore was a place 
 of more consequence than it has been of late. 
 Several families of gentry, each enjoying incomes of 
 a few hundreds a year, lived immediately around it. 
 The most prominent among these would appear to 
 have been that of the Ouseleys. Their stock, origi- 
 nally from Shropshire, had settled at Corteen Hall, 
 in Northamptonshire. Losses sustained in the 
 Royalist cause during the Civil War compelled them 
 to part with their seat to Sir Samuel Jones. Two 
 brothers, Richard and Jasper, on leaving Corteen 
 Hall, settled, the first in Wexford, the second in 
 Limerick. A son of Jasper bearing the same name 
 removed to Dunmore, and lived, according to Sir 
 Bernard Burke, at the Castle, which probably does 
 not mean the old ruin, but a house close by. His 
 eldest son was William, and his fourth Gideon. The 
 eldest sons of these two brothers were respectively 
 Ralph and John. Each of these cousins had two 
 remarkable sons.
 
 HIS BIRTHPLACE AND FAMILY. 3 
 
 The first pair, the sons of Ralph, became Sir Gore 
 and Sir William. Gore was an orientalist and 
 diplomatist. He distinguished himself as our pleni- 
 potentiary at the court of Persia, and left the 
 Ouseley name enriched with a baronetcy.* William 
 also became a diplomatist, and won a knighthood 
 and considerable reputation in Oriental literature. 
 
 Of the second pair, the sons of John, Ralph, after 
 distinguishing himself under Lake and Wellington, 
 became a major-general in the army of Portugal, 
 and, besides an English knighthood, bore four 
 foreign orders, not to speak of eight medals. He 
 was ten years junior to his brother Gideon, who was 
 never presented at court, and never wore a star. 
 
 Either of the two sons of John Ouseley might 
 have been chosen, in respect of natural character, 
 for a typical Connaught-man. This was so much 
 the case, that for the sake both of the patriots and 
 the ethnologists, we ought to be able to prove that, 
 at least on the mother's side, they were descended 
 from some ancient chieftain of the province. But 
 we remember the canon laid down by Moore 
 
 " By 'Mac' and < 0' 
 
 You'll always know 
 True Irishmen, they say; 
 
 For if they lack 
 
 Both ' ' and ' Mac,' 
 No Irishmen are they." 
 
 * Sir Bernard Burke states that he was also plenipotentiary at St 
 Petersburg, but that is incorrect. He returned from Persia through 
 Russia ; aud as be had negotiated a treaty between the two countries, 
 he was received with extraordinary distinction, and at least one city 
 was illuminated in his honour. In the capital the empress-mother 
 in person stood sponsor for his infant daughter. See " Memoir " by the 
 Rev. James Reynolds, prefixed to his work on the " Persian Poets " in the 
 publications of the Oriental Translation Fund.
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Now, so far as the pedigree of our Ouseleys is 
 given by Sir Bernard Burke, or in the family papers 
 before us, or in Mr Reynolds's Life of Sir Gore, 
 it does not afford a single " " or " Mac " to 
 encourage imagination. There is one intermarriage 
 with an O'Dowd, a name which might have made 
 the fortune of an essay on the persistency of types ; 
 but the blood of the O'Dowd took the wrong direc- 
 tion, and never reached our branch of the family. 
 In it the names are stubbornly Saxon. Morleys and 
 "Wakes, Willises, Broughtons, and Johnstons, are 
 not stock to grow Kelts from. The wife of John 
 Ouseley was Anne Surridge, daughter of Francis 
 Surridge of Fairy Hill, in the county of Galway, and 
 nearly related to the Seymours of that county. The 
 Keltic characteristics which stamped her two sons 
 had come by the subtle channels of communion 
 and example. 
 
 Gideon, the eldest son, was born on February 
 24, 1762. In that year John Wesley penetrated 
 for the second time to the city of Galway, and little 
 knew what a successor in his labours was then 
 cradled in a remote corner of the county.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM BIRTH TO MARRIAGE. 
 
 GIDEON grew up under the conflicting influence of 
 two parents, both of whom appear to have had a 
 well-defined character. The father read, and so did 
 the mother; but they seriously disagreed in their 
 belief. To John Ouseley the measure of the worth 
 of religion was the lives of its ministers, and, as he 
 knew these, they were of little worth indeed. Closely 
 connected with the Protestant clergy, and well 
 acquainted with the Roman Catholic, he had a poor 
 opinion of both. The former were more honest, the 
 latter more diligent, but neither bore any trace of 
 spiritual life or moral elevation. How far he was 
 read in deistical works we do not know, but a deist 
 he had become, and would not even go to church. 
 He thought that it would be hypocrisy in him to do 
 so, and further thought that there was enough of 
 that in the world already. Nevertheless he meant 
 to make Gideon a parson, for that was a good pro- 
 fession. How he reconciled this intention with the 
 honesty which would not put on as much appear- 
 ance of religion as consists in going to church, it is 
 not for us to explain.
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 Mrs Ouseley, on the contrary, maintained that 
 the lives of the clergy affected themselves, and not 
 the truths they taught. She diligently attended 
 church, and took her children with her. That is, 
 she attended except on those Sundays when there 
 was " no church to-day " at that time no rare 
 occurrence in Connaught, or any of the remote parts 
 of Ireland. The Rector of Dunmore had other 
 parishes, in which it sometimes took him a good 
 while to collect the tithes, and during such terms of 
 absence the church would be shut up. The same 
 would also take place when he went to spend a few 
 weeks in Dublin, or elsewhere. Whatever religious 
 help Mrs Ouseley could get for herself and her 
 children in a church thus served, she diligently 
 sought, and, besides, made the best use of the means 
 at her command at home. 
 
 In her view, the training of Gideon for a clergy- 
 man had higher aims than that of giving him a 
 profession. She had some feeling of the honour of 
 the calling, and of his possible usefulness in it if 
 properly qualified. Her grandson, Mr Bonsall, says 
 that in both her family and that of the Ouseleys 
 there had been some who bore a part in the work of 
 the Reformation, and the spirit of such an ancestry 
 had not quite died out. In the house they had valu- 
 able works both of Churchmen and Puritans, and 
 she turned them to good account. 
 
 Mr Ouseley did not try to teach his Deism to 
 Gideon, while his mother was careful that the father's 
 opinions should not infect the children. As a means 
 of training for her boy, who was to be the teacher of 
 others, she habitually made him read to her out of
 
 FROM BIRTH TO MARRIAGE. 
 
 the Bible, and also out of Tillotson's " Sermons," 
 Young's "Night Thoughts," and his "Last Day," 
 with other similar books. The boy imbibed much 
 religious thought and sentiment from constant read- 
 ing of this kind. Like others, he confusedly judged 
 of the power of religion in general by the lives of 
 those who taught it. Yet a sense of something 
 deeper sometimes arose, with thoughts of infinite 
 and awful things, and movements of the heart in 
 prayer. 
 
 His tutor was a priest, called by Mr Bonsall 
 " one of the old school," which means one educated 
 on the Continent. Those who remember Connaught 
 forty or fifty years ago, are able to contrast a few of 
 that class of priests, then still surviving, with the 
 pupils of Maynooth. They were at that time men 
 with white heads, long blue coats, shining Hessian 
 boots, and manners both dignified and winning, if 
 somewhat self-conscious. Father Tom Keane of 
 Kilmeena was a fine specimen of the class, whom 
 a few old men will still remember; one also whose 
 hospitality in his remote cottage had some of the 
 charm exerted over Kousseau by that of the original 
 of the " Vicaire Savoyard." 
 
 In the days of Gideon's boyhood, " the old school " 
 was the only school, and his tutor was the man of 
 his age, not a relic of a generation that had died off. 
 He is said to have been u a perfect Latinist and 
 mathematician." At all events, his pupil was dili- 
 gent. Up early and up late, he worked so hard 
 that fears were entertained for his health. The worst 
 of it was, that when the time came for him to enter 
 Trinity College, though unusually well furnished with
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Latin and mathematics, he had not sufficient Greek to 
 pass, because the priest could not teach him. Of course 
 this was a disappointment to his father, who began 
 to arrange for sending him to Dublin to learn his 
 entrance Greek, as good schools were not at hand. 
 
 Just at this time an accomplished scholar from 
 Dublin, Dr Eobinson, was brought down by Mr 
 Ralph Ouseley as tutor to his sons Gore and 
 William.* It is said that he gave them the first 
 start in those Oriental studies which carried them 
 to honour. It was arranged between the two 
 cousins that Gideon should join Gore and William 
 under Dr Eobinson. The qualifications of that 
 gentleman must have been high, for Sir Gore, on 
 hearing of his father's death, records in touching 
 terms his sense of the debt he owed him for that 
 education which had been the key to open his way. 
 The same provision which elicited this testimony 
 kept Gideon, for the present, from breathing the 
 cis- Shannon air. 
 
 It is hard to say what the effect of early entering 
 on city life would have been upon him ; but his 
 character, as finally formed, was such as only a 
 remote province could nurse. The open - hearted 
 ways of folk who seldom see a stranger, and never 
 but as an object of interest, had full time to mould 
 the habits even of his manhood, before he ever felt 
 the air of a big place that air which numbs your 
 consciousness of the presence of the stranger, as well 
 
 * Ralph Ouseley is called Captain in our papers, and in notices of 
 Sir Gore in biographical dictionaries. But Sir Gore always addressed 
 him as Esquire. Probably he was a lieutenant in some local corps, iu 
 which case he would be called Captain in the neighbourhood.
 
 FROM BIRTH TO MARRIAGE. 
 
 as your sense of the importance of the individual. 
 So to his latest day he never lost a keen sense of 
 the value of one. 
 
 The same causes laid the basis of that quick 
 sympathy between him and the common people 
 which was the greatest among the natural elements 
 of his power. Living in uninterrupted familiarity 
 with bog and cabin, with mountain-road and secluded 
 lake ; with frieze coats, red petticoats, shoeless feet, 
 and beggars' wallets ; with the Irish tongue, or 
 English spoken with a glorious brogue ; with two 
 or three little fields for a farm, and for a table the 
 potato-basket set on an iron pot ; with the wake and 
 the " berrin," the weddings and the " stations," the 
 village market, the rollicking fair, the hurling 
 matches, the " Patrons," and the rows which made 
 up the sum of peasant life, he was prepared to stand 
 close home upon the hearts of people for whom he 
 was to live. He had got into their bosoms before 
 one differently trained could have seized the tips of 
 their fingers. 
 
 The postponement of his going to college was 
 thought to be only temporary, but it proved to be 
 a putting of it oft* for life. A valuable farm in Ros- 
 common fell to his father, who removed to that 
 county with his family. Whether he now thought 
 that he had better prospects for his son than the 
 Church would offer, we do not know, but it is certain 
 that he wished him to take to land instead of tithes. 
 
 How long the Ouseleys had settled at Green Lawn 
 before Gideon met with Harriet Wills of Wills Grove 
 we cannot tell. What she was as a girl is not clearly 
 stated by any one who has supplied us with materials,
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 but as a woman, she became such as those friends of her 
 husband who set him highest thought nobly worthy 
 even of him. She had the advantage of Gideon. 
 He had never been to Dublin, and she had been 
 educated there. Moreover, there was a religious 
 secret, almost forgotten by herself, in her past short 
 history. When her father's health had failed, he 
 had taken her with him to Bath, where she spent a 
 couple of years. One evening, passing a place of 
 worship with her governess, she was struck with the 
 lights and singing, and entered and stood for a while. 
 The words of the hymn impressed her as she had 
 never been impressed before. Thoughts of God and 
 eternity rose up within her, she knew not how. She 
 afterwards several times begged the governess to 
 take her back to the same place, unknown to her 
 father, and the feelings were renewed. She never 
 knew what place of worship it was, or to what 
 denomination it belonged. On returning to the 
 thoughtless life of Wills Grove, the sense of things 
 unseen which had been' awakened at Bath faded 
 away ; but when happy days dawned for her soul, 
 the memory of it came back, as of a morning-star 
 before the morn. 
 
 The young people were both under age, but their 
 attachment was pleasing to the parents on either 
 side, and Mr Wills gave his daughter the house and 
 lands of Woodhill, situated near his own. It requires 
 little imagination to see Gideon's brother Ralph, then 
 a boy of eleven years old, first in the fun of the 
 wedding, and beginning to show that affection for 
 his new sister which, when a battered veteran, with 
 his own domestic ties pitifully broken, he poured out
 
 FROM BIRTH TO MARRIAGE. 11 
 
 in letters from London and Lisbon, as if he had still 
 been a big boy in Roscommon. Nearly fifty years 
 after her bridal-day he says, " My mind is in such a 
 state that all things are disagreeable to me. Except 
 in regard to you, I have never changed." 
 
 Doubtless the wedding would look more like the 
 introduction to such a life as Ralph led, than to the 
 one which, in the silent future, lay before Gideon 
 and his Harriet. It is not so probable that the 
 ceremony would be performed at church, as at the 
 house of the bride's father. And as we are speaking 
 of ninety years ago, it is pretty certain that the 
 guests generally did not arrive in carriages, or even 
 on jaunting-cars, but on dashing horses, the ladies 
 on pillions behind the gentlemen. Moreover, when 
 the drinking, dancing, and cards came on, probably 
 the parsons were first and foremost. If no fray 
 occurred, and no fall from horseback on the scamper 
 home over bridle-paths, it would be, as the gentlemen 
 would have said, " more by good luck than good 
 guiding." He would be a proud man who could 
 boast the next day that he brought home his sister, 
 himself, and twelve tumblers of punch without any 
 mishap. This quantity may seem absurd, but we 
 can testify that, though it was always mentioned as 
 implying a feat, it was not impossible on an occasion. 
 Half-a-dozen tumblers was a handsome allowance, 
 but great men gloried in leaving such performances 
 behind.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM MARRIAGE TO THE EVE OF HIS CONVERSION. 
 
 WHATEVER may have been the festivities of the 
 wedding, the bridegroom, though not yet twenty-one, 
 now found himself his own master, with the cares of 
 study dismissed, and those of want or serious business 
 not pressing. Hitherto his character bad been steady, 
 and, considering his age and surroundings, moral, 
 even grave. Now, however, he was set among wild 
 hunters, gamblers, revellers ; and his affection for 
 his young wife, though strong, was not strong 
 enough to keep him from following their lead. 
 "What the Connaught gentry of that day were has 
 been told by more than one. It seemed like a society 
 organised so as to show youths how they could best 
 throw away a birthright of fine qualities. Emulation 
 ran chiefly in absurd hospitality, in drinking and 
 sports ; public spirit culminated in a hunt or horse- 
 race ; duelling was recognised as the highest form of 
 brilliancy ; and, on the whole, the calling of a real 
 gentleman was to do nothing and spend much. The 
 honour of ladies was tenderly prized, but the purity 
 of gentlemen was another matter. 
 
 Maxwell's story of the man who would not do for 
 Galway was written about half a century later than
 
 FROM MARRIAGE TO HIS CONVERSION. 13 
 
 the time of which we speak. Any one who reads it 
 will not wonder that property thereabouts should have 
 exhibited the disposition to make to itself wings, in 
 abnormal force, and will be able partially to under- 
 stand how so many in Ireland have had to gaze, as 
 strangers, with hungry eyes on acres that belonged 
 to their forefathers. 
 
 Gideon's powerful frame and dreadnought courage 
 made him naturally leader in wild sports. His 
 agility is said to have defied all attempts at competi- 
 tion. His mental gifts and furniture would be con- 
 siderably beyond the average of the squires and 
 squireens who were his comrades. His ready wit 
 and free flow of words, with the drollery of his 
 fancies and his eye, would be an additional element 
 of power. The fatal superiority in saying nothings 
 and doing follies, which had lured many a man of 
 noble capabilities to self-waste, led him on and on. 
 11 The companion of fools " was the bitter record 
 which throughout the whole of his after-life his 
 judgment kept evermore writing in regard to those 
 squandered years. 
 
 How much poor Gideon lost by horse-racing and 
 other kinds of gambling, how much went in " the 
 drink," and how much in other forms of dissipation, 
 it is not in our power to say. However, it is plain 
 enough that after a while he had got himself into the 
 ordinary condition of men who run such a race, even 
 when they have more to start with than he had. 
 Already he was embarrassed and ashamed of himself, 
 and was plunging deeper and deeper into whirlpools, 
 trying to forget the shame, when his father-in-law 
 died.
 
 14 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 The heir-at-law of Mr Wills disputed the title of 
 Mr Ouseley to the house and lands of Woodhill, alleg- 
 ing some invalidity in the deed by which they had 
 been granted to his wife. So on the back of his 
 self-made difficulties came a new and cruel one. 
 His nephew, Mr Bonsall, could never exactly deter- 
 mine what particular reason led him to the course he 
 then took, which was the very strange one of leaving 
 the property without a struggle. Until his last day 
 he kept the disputed deed, of the validity of which he 
 had not a shadow of a doubt, and his legal advisers 
 said that there was no reason whatever to cast a doubt 
 upon it. The possible impulses under which he took 
 this unaccountable course are suggested by Mr Bonsall 
 as inexperience, unconquerable shame at his embar- 
 rassments, and hasty pride. The last and the first are 
 probably the true reasons. Men whose heads are 
 frequently heated with " more than is good for 
 them," if given to pride, are liable to grotesque fits 
 of that passion. We know of a case in which a 
 grant considerably larger than that of Woodhill was- 
 thrown up in one such fit. The habit of gambling, 
 also, has not a little to do with rash sacrifices of this 
 kind. Those who often wilfully run risk from mere 
 caprice are not unlikely rashly to do what cannot 
 be undone. 
 
 In after-life Mr Ouseley clearly saw that this 
 strange movement of his had proved to be the turn- 
 ing-point in his history, and in that of the devoted 
 wife whom he carried away from her home. What- 
 ever may have been the impulse under which lie 
 acted, when he afterwards looked back upon life, 
 he adored the hidden hand that led him away from
 
 FROM MARRIAGE TO HIS CONVERSION. 15 
 
 "Woodhill. Had lie continued to live there, he felt that 
 he would also have been one of the most heedless 
 and godless of the circle in which he was involved. 
 
 Injured himself, and having injured his wife, he 
 left the scene of his joys and follies, and again 
 returned to Dunmore. 
 
 It would appear that by this time his father also 
 was once more resident there. On land belonging 
 to him Gideon settled. But what he had suffered 
 had not brought wisdom. In Dunmore he found the 
 same kind of companions as those who had been his 
 curse at Woodhill. Things he had read and heard came 
 up at times in an array of awful thoughts. Espe- 
 cially when alone in the fields, he remembered the 
 great Creator, and felt, as he says, " a desire to 
 serve that Being who, by the word of His power, 
 had made the world." But lower desires of the flesh 
 bore these nobler ones down, and he ran with fools 
 in their folly, day after day, and night after night. 
 He was what the world calls gay what his renewed 
 self abhorred as grovelling; and sometimes he en- 
 deavoured to quench conscience by making himself 
 an infidel, but in this he does not appear to have 
 had complete success. He used to say to his friends, 
 that whatever was true, Popery was false ; and from 
 a letter written very late in life, it would seem that 
 at this early time, in addition to all he saw with 
 his own eyes, the reading of one of the fearful anathe- 
 mas of the Church of Rome had inspired him with 
 a horror of the cruelty embodied in the system, 
 which made him, even then, try to persuade com- 
 panions that it was wrong. 
 
 A severe scarcity of food occurred, and a com-
 
 1 6 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 mittee of relief was organised at Dunmore. Of this 
 Gideon was a member. One day, after having 
 discharged his duties, he was walking down the 
 street, and approached some of his friends who were 
 engaged in a frolic, or a fray, as it might be con- 
 sidered. Returning from a day of field-sport, they 
 had gone into the village inn to have " some refresh- 
 ment." The refreshment was of a kind much sung 
 for its social virtue. If it is really a cement of 
 friendship, it nevertheless sometimes stirs up 
 strife. Thomas Hart started away from his com- 
 panions in a heat, with his fowling-piece, loaded with 
 shot, under his arm. One followed to bring him 
 back, and a scuffle ensued, in which the piece went 
 off, and Gideon Ouseley, who was coming up, fell 
 on the street, with the entire charge lodged in the 
 right side of his neck and face. 
 
 They took up the bleeding man, and believing 
 him to be mortally wounded, bore him home to his 
 poor Harriet. She had often waited for him through 
 aching hours of night; assailed, it may be, by 
 thoughts against which her woman's heart would 
 fain have barred all the doors of imagination. Per- 
 haps while he was away she had sometimes wished that 
 there were children in the house to help to keep him 
 there. And perhaps, sometimes, when he did reach 
 the door, she was glad there were no children to see. 
 No doubt that in subsequent years the remembrance 
 of these dark days helped her not a little to that 
 sweet patience with which she always waited when 
 he was long and far away, and to the joy with which 
 she gave him up to shame and danger for the 
 blessed business he had then to do.
 
 FROM MARRIA GE . TO HIS CONVERSION. 1 7 
 
 She had no need to care how many eyes looked 
 upon his present return home. It was only sorrow- 
 ful ; for the blood that was flowing was not due 
 either to his folly or his sin. It proved that his life 
 was not in danger ; but when the shot struck the 
 face, a single grain entered the right eye, and drove 
 the day out of it for ever. 
 
 Now the strong man was a prisoner. Leisure and 
 solitude were imposed upon him. Death had knocked 
 at his door, and he felt that G-od alone had saved 
 him. The brain became cool, and gradually clear. 
 The one female figure constantly near was that of 
 his admirable wife. Time, not now "killed" by the 
 gabble of fools, but living and moving, stretched its 
 long wings, full of eyes, and, slowly floating past 
 under the broad vault of eternity, searched him 
 through and through. 
 
 We have already said that his readings with his 
 mother had not been quite lost. The truths of Scrip- 
 ture, and the images of " Night Thoughts," had often 
 troubled his dissipations. But now they came iu 
 companies, and lifted up their voice. The passages 
 upon death and eternity were much before his mind. 
 He could not read ; but Harriet was at his side, and 
 she read to him. These readings bore no unimpor- 
 tant part in the mental processes which went to form 
 Gideon Ouseley. Several statements, written and 
 oral, which we have respecting them, agree perfectly 
 in substantials, but show a discrepancy on one point 
 of detail. As, when, years before, he read for his 
 mother, so now the writings of Young held the lead- 
 ing place. Among these all concur in giving pro- 
 minence to the "Centaur not Fabulous;" but only
 
 1 8 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Mr Bonsall names it as among the works read to his 
 mother, which statement we take to be improbable. 
 There can be no question that it had a chief part in 
 making the impressions which rendered the time, of 
 which we are now speaking, memorable. The testi- 
 mony of the Rev. John Nelson is distinct, that this was 
 the book to which Mr Ouseley always referred as the 
 one that made the deepest impression upon his mind, 
 and also that he spoke of it as having been intro- 
 duced to him by Mrs Ouseley. Mr Nelson, however, 
 adds that she had misconceived its drift. By 
 another informant this mistake on her part as to the 
 drift of a work is referred to the " Infidel Reclaimed." 
 The particular object which Mrs Ouseley had in view 
 is taken to be the same in both statements, and for 
 that object the " Centaur not Fabulous " was the book. 
 Doubtless the " Infidel Reclaimed" was read, and 
 with still more attention the " Last Day." At that 
 time the terrors of this poem had, if not an attraction 
 for the mind of Mr Ouseley, a certain affinity with its 
 state. To quote the book that touched him most, he 
 now had time to converse with the two greatest 
 strangers God and his own heart and " neither of 
 them at peace with him." The setting forth of 
 eternal things in the poem recalled feelings, which 
 often had arisen in earlier years, but had always 
 died away. The blasts of the last trumpet awoke 
 the echo of many a sentence of self-condemnation. 
 Passages referring to the follies of licence and 
 excess came upon his ear in the soft, warm accents 
 of a Connaught lady, with which, doubtless, would 
 often blend the undefinable but tell-tale note of 
 a wife yearning for the reformation of her husband.
 
 FROM MARRIAGE TO HIS CONVERSION. 19 
 
 The fact that returning health might bring on its 
 golden wings new sins for him, and new sorrows for 
 her, was not to be kept out of sight. And so the 
 subtle language of tone would now and then tell 
 how she was hoping and praying that the big and 
 often clouded lines (veiled, however, with trans- 
 lucent cloud) would somehow make her Gideon 
 good. 
 
 It was not with them now as it was when, after 
 having travelled together till both had reached the age 
 of seventy-seven, she once more sat by his sick-bed 
 reading, while the hour for the last farewell drew on. 
 Then, the book was not Young, but the Bible; 
 and the favourite passages were not those describing 
 a wicked life, a miserable death, and a doleful 
 eternity, but those of which the retrospect was re- 
 deeming love, and the prospect glory, honour, and im- 
 mortality. In the first case, they feared what the little 
 space of time given by recovery might produce ; in 
 the second, they did not fear what eternity, introduced 
 by death, would bring forth. 
 
 But the prose of Young struck deeper than his 
 poetry. The conceit under which the sharp lessons 
 of the " Centaur not Fabulous " are couched, was 
 suited to engage the imagination of Mr Ouseley. He 
 could vividly see the picture of a monster in which 
 " the brute runs away with the man . . . galloping 
 with more than human haste after temptations." 
 Many of the passages touched sore places. The death 
 of Altamont was one to which, if we do not mis- 
 take, he often referred as having made a very deep 
 impression. In reading the passage where the man 
 of pleasure is put to the question as to whether he
 
 20 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 ever did ask himself to what species he belonged 
 an immortal or only a rational creature, or a mere 
 animal we find the kind of thoughts which 
 seemed to be native to his own mind. But here 
 they are dressed in velvet, instead of his Connaught 
 frieze. The conclusion of that passage might have 
 been introduced by his own clinching ergo " He is 
 an immortal without the sense of his immortality. 
 He is a rational dethroning reason, and an animal 
 transgressing appetite." Perhaps the affinity with 
 his own modes of thought was still more striking in 
 the following grotesque definitions of the man of 
 pleasure : 
 
 " He is an immortal that has two marks of a man 
 about him upright stature, and the power of play- 
 ing the fool, which a monkey has not. 
 
 " He is an immortal being that triumphs in this 
 singular, deplorable, and yet thoughtless hope tbat 
 he shall be as happy as a monkey when they are both 
 dead, though he despairs of being so while yet alive. 
 
 " He is an immortal being that would lose none of 
 its most darling delights if he were a brute in the 
 mire, but would lose them all entirely if he were an 
 angel in heaven." 
 
 In the illness to which we are now referring, Young 
 was performing for the future Gideon Ouseley, the 
 double service which he had already rendered to 
 many labourers in the field on which the latter was to 
 enter. He was filling the imagination with vivid 
 and active conceptions of life and death, sin and 
 justice, heaven and hell, and storing the memory 
 with terms, phrases, and illustrations by which to 
 convey those conceptions to others, not to speak of
 
 FROM MARRIAGE TO HIS CONVERSION. 21 
 
 passages for quotation. The appeals of Mr Ouseley 
 in future life bore testimony of his debts to the 
 bard of Welwyn, from whose wing he often feathered 
 his arrows, as did many another good bowman in 
 the Methodist advance. This eventual use of the 
 readings from Young was, for the time being, distant 
 from the thoughts of both husband and wife. So 
 far as Mrs Ouseley was concerned, we have no 
 reason to believe that her views went beyond such a 
 reformation as would give her a good husband, though 
 perhaps this was connected with some vague feeling 
 after God, " if haply they might find Him." Her 
 husband's language to Mr Bonsall shows that his 
 own ideas of amendment were limited to a similar 
 range. He speaks of them as founded on " temporal 
 and bodily " considerations, rather than on any correct 
 conception of God's holiness and justice. Probably 
 he just intended to be such a man as Harriet would 
 be proud of, and to follow such a course as would 
 secure his character and prospects, and bring no peril 
 to his health. He had plenty of will, and when he 
 took a matter in hand, was noted for being able to 
 set it through. This, of course, he was now going 
 to do in the great affair of turning over a new leaf. 
 Doubtless, however, he would offer some prayers, 
 formal or informal, to fortify his judicious resolu- 
 tions. 
 
 Wise with the many reflections of his retirement, 
 and strong in the purpose to be good, he once more 
 set foot on the highway of life. He had not 
 travelled far, when the dismissed follies began to 
 come about him again; not, indeed, at first with 
 any claim to be masters as of old, but seeking only
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 for occasional employment, and that ever so little, 
 as inferior servants. 
 
 To yield now would be worse than his first errors 
 at Woodhill, and even than his deeper plunges after 
 returning to Dunmore. Now he would have to 
 tread upon deliberate resolutions and mature judg- 
 ments. He had coolly determined to make a good 
 man of Gideon Ouseley, and surely he was not to be 
 foiled. Had he not force of will, and command over 
 himself? Yes, perfect, when the thing to be done 
 was bad or indifferent. But now ? The thing to be 
 done was to cease to do evil, and to learn to do well, 
 and had he not strength of mind for that ? Here 
 was the true trial of the strong man. Alas ! failure 
 after failure, leading on to fall after fall, till it 
 became a prisoner's conflict between fetters he could 
 not cast and longings he would not quench. 
 
 " The evil that I would not, that I do," began to 
 be his bitter feeling ; and then came the still more 
 mysterious experience, " The good that I would, I 
 do not." Vaguely, but with distressing effect, 
 disagreeable truths begin to make themselves felt 
 rather than seen. First, that his "good heart" 
 was far from being good after all ; and secondly, 
 that he was not his own master, but really a slave. 
 In happy days of subsequent liberty, after his Lord 
 had made him free, when referring to the bewildering 
 conflict of this time, he would say, " It is not I, but 
 sin that dwelleth in me " the dark master who 
 held the castle forced him to do work that he ab- 
 horred. 
 
 His old comrades thought he was now all regained 
 to them. No doubt his poor wife thought he was
 
 FROM MARRIAGE TO HIS CONVERSION. 23 
 
 all lost, and lost for life. But neither could see 
 what divine checks the new course of sinning had 
 to contend against within the bosom of the sinner 
 himself. If the dark spirit cast him down and made 
 him wallow, the Spirit of Light was standing above 
 and speaking soft words, but words of power. He 
 often afterwards said that his own feeling was best 
 put into the language of another " wretched 
 man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body 
 of this death ? " We seldom realise how much God 
 may be working in the heart of those who seem to 
 be loosed from all restraint. At this particular point 
 of his history Mr Ouseley had concluded that his 
 case was incurable that he must go on sinning, 
 and be lost to all eternity. He knew that he had 
 sincerely meant and sought to establish his own 
 righteousness, and the only result was deeper guilt 
 and worse depravity. What cure could such a 
 disorder admit of?
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 
 
 WHEN a detachment of the Fourth Royal Irish Dragoon 
 Guards marched into the cavalry barracks of Dun- 
 more, it did not strike any one in the town that the 
 event was to have any connection with the future 
 religious life of Gideon Ouseley. But it had not 
 long been there before the little place was ringing 
 with the news of strange doings at the head inn. 
 This was kept by Mrs Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, 
 who had a large room, called in the place " the 
 public room," which she let to showmen, conjurors, 
 and such other worthies as were candidates for an 
 audience in Dunmore. Some of the new soldiers, 
 headed by Quartermaster Robinet, came to inquire 
 about the room, and engaged it for frequent use 
 to hold meetings. That dragoons should resort to a 
 public-house was nothing new, and as to what kind 
 of meetings theirs would be, few people would think 
 it worth while to guess. 
 
 But when the new soldiers assembled, there was 
 something strange about their proceedings. Voices 
 and singing were heard, and there was no drink. 
 What could they be doing? The people of the inn 
 listened, and others gathered ; and it came to be
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 25 
 
 credibly reported in the town that the troopers met 
 to pray, and that they sang hymns and read the 
 Bible, and did something like preaching. The quarter- 
 master seemed to be a kind of parson for them, but 
 he had no prayer-book. This was enough to excite 
 a place more exposed to events than Duumore. 
 What could they be? 
 
 The clergy of both " Church and Chapel " combined 
 to lead the laugh against the praying soldiers ; but 
 some of the people, perhaps, thought that the parsons 
 themselves had better be more given to prayer. 
 Some affirmed that the quartermaster and his band 
 were Methodists, and the bulk of the people asked what 
 was that, to whom the wiser replied that it was a 
 new religion. But the great question was, What 
 could lead men to act so ? and each very wise man 
 in the place had his own view as to that deep secret. 
 Had they met for any kind of folly and wickedness, 
 the town's-folk would not have found it necessary 
 to seek below the surface for motives. But meetings 
 for worship ! It was, however, remarked that, what- 
 ever else the men might be, they were steady. 
 
 The soldiers seemed open enough, and asked every- 
 body to come and see. Presently one and another of 
 the poorer classes did come, and the plain words of the 
 quartermaster told upon both heart and life. But 
 the oddity of a man in that military array, such as 
 the cavalry uniform then was, standing up and preach- 
 ing, and that without any book to preach from, passed 
 everything, and still the wonder grew. 
 
 Mr Ouseley, of course, heard the talk, shared in 
 the wonder, and adopted some wise man's notion 
 that they had an underhand design, to cover which
 
 26 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 all this show was adopted. Still he wanted to know 
 what their design could be, and no two agreed on that 
 point. But he was so sure that there was something 
 of the kind, that he would not venture into their 
 meetings. After a time, however, he resolved to do 
 so, feeling perfectly confident that he would detect 
 "some design, some trick." 
 
 It was in April 1791, that the powerful man of 
 twenty-nine years of age, with one eye blind, and 
 the other full of shrewdness and roguery, came in 
 and faced the quartermaster, determined to find 
 him out. With the one keen eye he watched every 
 movement, and with both ears hearkened to the 
 exhortation and to the prayers of Robinet, and of 
 some of his men. When all was over, what had he 
 found out? He was compelled to confess, nothing 
 not even a new religion ; for, using all the theo- 
 logical lore which he had laid up in his various 
 reading, he found he had not heard anything but 
 what seemed to be in agreement with the Bible, and 
 with the prayers of the Church. 
 
 However, what he had not detected at first sight, 
 he felt sure he would on further search. So he came 
 to the meetings again and again. But still the same 
 failure to discover any design, any trick ; and some- 
 how a new light seemed to glide inward to the hidden 
 places of his own breast. He began to have different 
 views of himself. His sins put on the appearance of 
 more than follies and mistakes, and gradually were 
 placed in the odious light of offences against a very 
 good and holy God. Before, he took it for granted 
 that he could not be cured, and so must sin on. 
 Now, while on the one hand sin began to look more
 
 HIS CONVERSION-. 27 
 
 exceeding sinful, and eternal danger to be close at 
 hand, on the other hand the possibility of a real 
 cure ever and anon crossed the darkness, as with a 
 gleam from heaven. 
 
 Gradually he felt that he had done injustice to 
 the quartermaster, and that, whatever he might be, 
 he really had no design or trick covered under his 
 appearances, but, on the contrary, was a true man. 
 Soon esteem and confidence replaced his old suspi- 
 cions. He invited Mr Robinet to his house. Their 
 conversation led him to the Bible, and eventually 
 gave a personal interest and reality to things which 
 hitherto, though very awful, had been rather vague 
 and distant. He felt more and more that sin was 
 hateful, and yet that there was a way of repentance. 
 
 Encouraged by the appearances in the place, the 
 quartermaster had appealed to the Methodist preach- 
 ers to visit Dunmore. We have different statements 
 as to who was the first who came, the balance of 
 opinion appearing to be in favour of Mr Thomas 
 Davis-, from the Athloue Circuit. Among these 
 early visitors, David Gordon, of the Parsonstown 
 Circuit, is particularly mentioned. Mr Ouseley, rather 
 strong in his own theological attainments, was 
 careful in judging of the doctrine of the preachers, 
 and his first impressions of them were simply that 
 he had not any fault to find with what they said, 
 rather approved of it, but he received no particular 
 religious influence from it. However, at a second, 
 or subsequent, visit of David Gordon, in the month 
 of May 1791, the preacher selected as his text, 
 " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build 
 my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
 
 28 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 against it." We should have expected that this 
 would be the text for a highly controversial sermon. 
 It would seem, on the contrary, that Gordon's was 
 entirely practical. And then, for the first time, one 
 of those living impressions, which are never after- 
 wards forgotten, appears to have been made upon 
 Mr Ouseley. He says that the earnestness of the 
 preacher, and his remarks upon the text, affected 
 him so deeply, that, both while hearing him and 
 afterwards, thoughts of eternity crowded upon his 
 mind. He adds, " I then more fully resolved upon 
 reformation, and changed from evil practices, and 
 withdrew from the society of my ungodly asso- 
 ciates." 
 
 By this time he appears to have come to the all- 
 important point of habitual and deep study of the 
 Holy Scriptures. There he sought to know the will of 
 God; and then the passages in the "Night Thoughts," 
 the " Infidel Reclaimed," and the " Centaur not 
 Fabulous," which had often affected him before, and 
 been buried under the rubbish of his life, rose up again 
 and held awful converse with him in the dark. One 
 day, when at home and alone, he was overwhelmed 
 with thoughts of eternity. He says, "The question 
 came to my mind, Is there an eternity? is there 
 a hereafter beyond the grave? My mind replied, 
 There is. The next question was, What will you do ? 
 Then instantly all my sins sprang up to my mind's 
 view like a hostile army. I then reasoned with my- 
 self, If all this remains, and comes against me 
 in the day of judgment, I shall be ruined most 
 certainly." Then encouraging passages of Scripture 
 began to be suggested to his mind. " But I felt
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 29 
 
 as if I was too vile a sinner to warrant hope that 
 there was mercy for me. Yet I remembered that 
 there was mercy for even the chiefest of sinners, and 
 I thought of the invitation, in Isaiah i. 18, to 
 reason with Him. The thought of my heart was, If 
 God will forgive you all the past, will you serve 
 Him, not as many do, but as He will have Himself 
 served that is, according to His own Word, and not 
 heeding what men may say or do ? I replied, All 
 this is reasonable ; but I never could serve Him 
 in that manner. It was then suggested to me, God 
 is almighty, and He is merciful ; and if you labour 
 to promote this result as you have done in other 
 things, failure is impossible. To this I said, I 
 believe so ; but I must count the cost. I am a 
 young man, and may live, say forty years, and to 
 be under restraint all that time, as if buried alive, 
 would be dreadful. I am not willing to undertake to 
 be tied down to obey that book (the Bible) for the re- 
 mainder of my life. Then I considered the possi- 
 bility that I might die before the morning; and even 
 should I survive for forty years, and then be cast 
 into hell for all eternity! This decided the matter. I 
 had such a view of eternity, of being cast into ever- 
 lasting misery, never never never to be released! 
 I fell upon my knees, and cried, God, I will sub- 
 mit ! The moment I consented, and cried, I submit, 
 I submit, cost me what it will, the scripture came to 
 my mind, ' When the wicked man turneth away from 
 his wickedness that he hath done, and doeth that 
 which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul 
 alive.' This is good, said I; it is great encourage- 
 ment. Another scripture followed, * Blessed are
 
 30 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall 
 find watching' (Luke xii. 37). So then I said to 
 myself, If I begin to watch now, and obey the Lord, 
 and do no more evil, but obey Him according to this 
 book, He will count me a blessed man, and He 
 will never go back. The next thought that occurred 
 to me was, But what will you do with your past 
 sins ? I replied to that question, Even if I cried 
 my eyes out, I could not make my sins less than 
 they are ; but when God agrees to regard me as a 
 blessed man if I watch, what need I vex myself? 
 
 " Now, said I, what shall I begin to do ? I do 
 not know, unless somebody teach me. Then three 
 classes of Christian teachers passed in review before 
 me. The first the Roman Catholic priests, and the 
 voice inquired, Will they do ? No, no ; they are a 
 set of mercenaries. Secondly, the Church clergy ; 
 they are not schemers like the others, but then they 
 are as little good as myself. They won't do ; they 
 are as careless as I am. Thirdly, the Methodist 
 preachers ; they look very smooth, but they may have 
 some evil among them, and I had better not have 
 anything to do with them. They won't do. What 
 shall I do ? I have but one soul ; and if that is gone, 
 all is gone ! Then the voice sounded, Read the 
 Scriptures, and do what they bid you. I was going 
 to say, I will, when another thought arose, How 
 do you know that the Scriptures are true ? I do not 
 know, said I, but of all things they appear the most' 
 probable. God knows I know no better ; and I 
 determined to read and obey. But I found myself 
 so stupid and forgetful, that I could not obey as I 
 expected."
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 31 
 
 It would now seem as if Christian had fairly 
 turned his back upon the City of Destruction, and 
 with his burden upon his shoulders, was bent on 
 getting far away from it. Mr Ouseley was at last 
 consciously fleeing from the wrath to come, and felt 
 that at any cost it was best to press forward. He 
 knew little but that he could not be saved in his sins, 
 and wondered that, when he had resolved to give 
 them up, and watch for the future, all did not go 
 well. He read the Bible to gain more knowledge, 
 and prayed to get more strength. Still the result 
 was outward vacillation, and inward darkness and 
 misery. 
 
 " Then I thought of going to the Lord's Table in 
 a way I never had done before, hoping that the 
 terror of damnation due to eating and drinking 
 unworthily would arouse me. A dispute I had had 
 with a gentleman a few days before occurred to my 
 mind ; because the Scriptures say, l If thou bringest 
 thy gift to the altar/ &c. I found I could not go, 
 because of this disagreement. But he was in fault. 
 But I said, This is no palliation ; and I took my 
 hat, and went immediately to the gentleman's house, 
 and said to him, We have had a dispute : I am going 
 to the Lord's Table, and I cannot go with that upon 
 my mind. So we shook hands, and were reconciled. 
 I went to the Lord's Table, and it was some relief 
 to me from the dreadful stupidity I felt. 
 
 " Soon after I had come home from church, a 
 drunken beggar came to the door. The thought 
 struck me, Give him nothing. Another thought 
 came, Never turn thy face away from any poor 
 man, and the face of the Lord will never be turned
 
 32 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 away from you. I have promised I shall obey God, 
 and now I will. So I went to order something to be 
 given to the poor man, and the scripture occurred to 
 me, ' The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.' I said, I 
 am not the man. But I went forward, and did as I 
 purposed. All the day after I was in heaviness ; 
 and on going to bed, I said on my knees, Lord, I 
 am not a cheerful giver, and I cannot help it. 
 
 " All this time I knew not the way of salvation 
 by faith in Christ." In fact, to him, as to most men 
 before conversion, the authority of God had appeared 
 hitherto in the same aspect as public justice does to 
 a criminal that, namely, of the greatest danger and 
 the most dreadful enemy. It does not strike a thief 
 that public justice is the most earnest friend of 
 the whole community, and that, the case arising, it 
 would prove the best friend even to him, and would 
 make the difference for him between being mutilated 
 by wild revenge and being moderately punished 
 by a responsible tribunal. The two alternatives 
 of innocence or punishment the only ones which 
 strict law can recognise naturally fill almost the 
 entire field of view in an unenlightened conscience. 
 True, there is then some glimmer of a doctrine of 
 pardon, but it is a pardon viewed only as a very 
 slight modification of the law of innocence a mere 
 passing over of sin, as something that may be treated 
 slightly. When the law enters; and is put by the 
 finger of God into the mind and heart of a man, all 
 these trifling views of sin go out, and it becomes 
 to every thought and feeling exceeding sinful. 
 
 Then the conception of a free pardon upon repent- 
 ance granted on no heavier condition than simply
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 33 
 
 pleading the death of Christ as our substitute, and 
 relying on that alone, is difficult to admit. The 
 unforgiving nature of man teaches him that some 
 reparation ought to be made by him who has done 
 the wrong ; and, moreover, his pride is hurt by terms 
 which, in a case of such heavy offending, take away 
 all pretext of offering the least consideration for 
 being reinstated in favour. The very greatness of 
 the mercy implies the completeness of his own guilt 
 and inability; and the very simplicity of the way 
 whereby that mercy may be made his own, brings it 
 so near, that a man ready to perish feels as if the 
 news were too good to be accepted, at least for the 
 present. 
 
 This free, plain, ready method of justification it 
 was which Mr Ouseley was slow to learn. He says, 
 " Thank God, I did learn it before it was too late. 
 I was seeking salvation by the works of the law; 
 and because my efforts were futile, I murmured 
 against God. I condemned Him, and not myself. 
 I asked, ' Why did God make me as I am ; and why 
 expose me to eternal ruin for what was His fault, 
 and not mine ? ' I was like one enclosed in a net, and 
 was becoming more and more entangled by my efforts 
 to extricate myself." 
 
 Now came one more noticeable turn in the out- 
 ward path along which the inner life was advancing. 
 Some time in the month of May 1791, on a week 
 evening, after the ordinary meeting, the preacher 
 invited " any seriously-disposed person " to remain 
 for the meeting of the Society. Mr Ouseley had 
 determined not to have anything to do with their 
 Society ; but he was now so anxious for every ray of 
 
 c
 
 34 LIFE OF GIDEON USE LEY. 
 
 light, that he thought he would try even what this 
 might bring. Mr Reilly has quoted his words, and 
 they are plainly genuine, as he must have often heard 
 them from his lips : "I will wait and see what they 
 are about ; but if I find any juggling, any Freemason's 
 tricks among them, I will have nothing to do with 
 them." It is strange that one so shrewd did not ask 
 himself if it was likely that those who had anything 
 among them which they feared being " found out," 
 would give so wide an invitation as to " any one 
 seriously disposed," so that, in fact, any person might 
 come in and play the spy. Not seeing this, he once 
 more set the sharp eye to watch for signs of some 
 black art. 
 
 What did it find ? People in such privacy as con- 
 sists, not in secrecy, but in being of one mind, giving 
 themselves up with feelings of family cordiality to 
 communion on the things of God. It was Brother 
 this, and Sister that. The hymns sung were such as 
 speak of mercy as a pearl in possession ; of peace as 
 felt and flowing ; of God as a Father near at hand and 
 strangely loving ; of Christ as perfect Priest, Sacri- 
 fice, Mediator, Righteousness, and Redemption ; and 
 of heaven as a happy, happy home, only on the other 
 side of a thin cloud. The prayers were very like 
 those offered up in public, and yet, upon closer atten- 
 tion, seemed rather more as men would pray Avlion 
 no one was within hearing. Instead of secrets to be 
 kept, each one openly spoke of God's good dealings 
 and loving-kindness. 
 
 This was something different from making the 
 discovery of some jugglery. The work of God in 
 the soul of man was now brought closer home to
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 35 
 
 his thoughts than it ever had been before. The 
 generalities of a sermon were here dismissed. It 
 was now man for man and woman for woman. The 
 language was not They and Them ; but it was I, and 
 You, and We. We have no particulars of what was 
 said by the respective persons then present ; but we 
 know very well how the conversation would run, 
 and thousands would be able to set it down in sub- 
 stance just as well as we. 
 
 The words of each particular person would vary, 
 and yet, somehow, all would support the testimony 
 of the others. The great theme was the pardoning 
 love of God, and simply believing in Christ crucified 
 was constantly alluded to as the means by which it 
 came to be felt and known. This brother had long 
 looked to his own efforts and self-healing, but only 
 grew worse and worse ; but, when in despair and 
 ready to perish, he cast all on Christ alone ; salvation 
 came with joy, while power over sin sealed the change. 
 He would be encouraged to "run with patience the 
 race set before him." Another simple soul would 
 say that he wanted to tell to all around " what a 
 dear Saviour I have found." 
 
 Another had fallen again and again, but had been 
 renewed and restored by the inexhaustible patience 
 of redeeming love. He would be warned to " watch 
 and pray, lest he should fall into temptation." 
 Another had formerly walked in the light, but he 
 had been unwatchful, and now felt as if closed round 
 with mist and cloud. He would get a cheering word 
 he must not despond. " Sorrow might endure for a 
 night, but joy would come in the morning." Another 
 was full of hope, feeding upon foreseen glory ; and
 
 36 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 he would receive the exhortation to be " faithful 
 unto death." Yet another felt the struggle against 
 the world, the flesh, and the devil very hard, and 
 sometimes thought he should be overcome ; but he 
 was determined to do his best. He would be affec- 
 tionately reminded that " not by might, not by 
 power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord; " and that, 
 if he trusted in his own strength, he should fail, but 
 if he laid hold on that of the Lord, he should be 
 strong with "the Spirit's might in the inner man." 
 And so the conversation, ever changing yet ever 
 similar, would run on, almost every word teaching 
 the stranger, while no one intended to teach. It is 
 possible there may have been present some of those 
 whose marked individuality no general type will 
 ever cover, who often by a single phrase, a quota- 
 tion, or a metaphor, convey to the bewildered captive 
 of sin a light which volumes of formal discoursing 
 would fail to bring. 
 
 As we said before, we do not know the details of 
 what was then spoken ; but " it was the very thing 
 for him," and especially " the experiences he had 
 heard." What he had found was very far from being 
 the discovery of a new religion ; yet it was the 
 discovery of a Church in a new aspect as to Gideon 
 Ouseley. Here was a Church in a house, not a Church 
 with her tongue always tied, except when vicariously 
 opened on Sunday in the pulpit ; but a Church seated 
 at home like a joyful mother of children, with her 
 sons and daughters holding free fellowship in family 
 communion. Of course, he had read of Christians 
 "exhorting one another," and "praying one for 
 another," and " admonishing one another in psalms
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 37 
 
 and hymns and spiritual songs," and more to the 
 same effect ; but he had never known of anything of 
 the kind in practice, except as the clergyman might 
 do all this, or at least as much of it as needed to be 
 done. He had read of one calling " all that feared 
 the Lord to come to him, and he would tell them 
 what He had done for his soul ; " but he did not know 
 that anything of the sort was ever thought of nowadays. 
 He had also read of Christians "confessing their 
 faults one to another," and had seen in the sacred 
 writings many instances of such confession as might 
 be properly made before any of the brethren, as in 
 the Psalms and Epistles ; but all he had ever practi- 
 cally known of confession was that cataloguing and 
 detailing of particular transgressions which is fit 
 only for the secret ear of one initiated as a scrutineer 
 of sin. Here, however, was plenty of confessing 
 fervent and touching. One was " unwatchful," 
 another " hard and ungrateful," another " the chief 
 of sinners," another had "grieved the Spirit; "yet it 
 was such confessing as needed no secrecy or priest- 
 craft, but only called forth the prayer of one for the 
 other, as of those who felt their common need, and 
 sought the common help. 
 
 He here found that Gideon Ouseley was not the 
 first who had determined to make a good man of 
 himself, and miserably learned that " the leopard can- 
 not change his spots;" that he was not the first that 
 had said he never could be cured, and might as well 
 sin on ; nor the first who had gone to the Lord's Table, 
 and done much to set his house in order, and yet 
 found no rest to his soul. Then, as to this new way 
 of faith they called it " resting on Christ," commit-
 
 38 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 ting all to Christ, laying down the weapons of 
 rebellion, renouncing all merit but that of Jesus, 
 beholding the Lamb as slain for them, looking only 
 to the blood of Christ, and s'o on. And yet, again, as 
 to the love, and joy, and peace they spake of! Was it 
 not wonderful to hear men talk as if the things said 
 in the Bible were real, and as if people actually did 
 feel and know them in Dunmore ? 
 
 It is not clear in our narrative whether it was. 
 Quartermaster Robiuet who invited him to the class- 
 meeting, or John Hurly ; but just now mention 
 occurs of the latter. He was one whom Gideon did 
 lovingly remember " an earnest, zealous preacher, 
 and his ministry was much blessed to me." It is 
 evident that in his discourses the law had no small 
 place ; and hitherto this seems to have been the only 
 part of scriptural truth which made much impression 
 upon Mr Ouseley. Now his views of sin were gra- 
 dually becoming more defined, both as to its being 
 grievous in the sight of God, and being the natural 
 fruit of his own evil heart. But of John Hurly he 
 says, " He did not leave me to the horrors of the hnv. 
 He unfolded the plan of salvation. He preached 
 the glad tidings. He assured me of the willingness 
 of God to pardon my sins though faith in Christ, to 
 blot my name out of the book of death, and write it 
 in the book of life." 
 
 This, and especially the testimonies to which he 
 had listened at the class-meeting, brought the idea 
 of pardon nearer home. Now the blotting out of sin 
 was no longer an undefined something to be obtained 
 or not as the case might be, but in any case not to 
 be felt. It had become in his view a real recoucilia-
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 39 
 
 tion with God, having its effect in the mind of the 
 prodigal, as well as in that of the forgiving Father, 
 involving the healing of the breach and the establish- 
 ment of peace on both sides. He saw in the Holy 
 Scriptures that they whom God forgave were abun- 
 dantly forgiven tasted His love, and were made 
 happy. He felt sure that others had actually found 
 the pearl he now eagerly sought after ; but was not 
 his own case an extreme one that of a sinner beyond 
 the pale of ordinary clemency ? 
 
 Thus agitated, and yet led onwards, Mr Ouseley 
 was now nearing the foot of the cross. His views of 
 God's plain way of mercy were still far from being 
 clear, but he had a dawning knowledge that salva- 
 tion was of grace alone, through the merit of Christ 
 alone, and received by faith alone. The bitterness of 
 his sin and its burden became more and more intoler- 
 able. He would cry, "0 God! my wicked nature! 
 Fain would I be made a new creature, but I can no 
 more do this for myself than I can touch the stars or 
 create a world." He had now both the satisfaction 
 and the pain of one who was in search, not merely of 
 some hid treasure of a sort unknown, but of one goodly 
 pearl the satisfaction of having a definite object 
 to seek, and the pain of seeking and not finding. 
 " Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I 
 might come even to His seat ! " was his cry, as again 
 and again he sought the witness of God's Spirit with 
 his spirit that he had been accepted as His child. 
 " I would order my cause before Him, and fill my 
 mouth with arguments." And he did so, urging the 
 great good argument, " God be merciful to me." Yet 
 no answer. " Behold, I go forward, but He is not
 
 40 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 there ; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him ; 
 on the left hand where He doth work, but I cannot 
 behold Him. He hideth Himself on the right hand 
 
 o 
 
 that I cannot see Him." But He that had said to 
 him, " Seek my face," was not to hide it long. 
 
 John Hurly had evidently succeeded in teaching 
 him that mercy was at the door, and that redemption 
 was to be looked upon as nigh at hand ; and one 
 Sunday morning, about the middle of May 1791, when 
 in his own house seeking his Saviour as he long had 
 sought Him, he was enabled to behold the Lamb of 
 God slain for him, and felt that the load and dark- 
 ness were taken away, and that the long-sought 
 peace had been bestowed at last. At the meeting of 
 the class, Hurly asked him, " Are you getting power 
 over your sins ? " " Yes ; but the axe must not boast 
 against him that heweth therewith." Probably 
 there was a new tone and look with these words, 
 for Hurly replied, " Do you believe that the Lord has 
 pardoned you ? " " Yes ; i my soul doth magnify the 
 Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Saviour.' ' 
 The blessed Spirit had put a new song in his mouth, 
 which all along the wind-beaten path he travelled to 
 the grave was sung and sung anew. 
 
 Mr Reilly has made emphatic mention of the way 
 in which he often had heard Mr Ouseley in later life 
 tell of " that Sunday morning." And thousands 
 heard him allude to it, in accents they could never 
 forget, when weighted with years and labour, after 
 hard experience of life and clear tokens of coming 
 decay had sufficed to dispel illusory recollections, 
 and even to damp the joy of such as were real, if it 
 had not been unquenchable. To the last, when he
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 41 
 
 referred to the great deliverance then granted to him, 
 just as when speaking of it at Dunmore at the first, 
 " his soul did magnify the Lord, and his spirit 
 rejoiced in God his Saviour." Always with thrilling 
 voice, and often with flowing tears, he gave praises 
 for the mercy then bestowed, whereby life had been 
 rendered thrice happy. Even to the present time, 
 though he has been already thirty-five years in his 
 grave, many of his children in Christ survive whose 
 memories will yet echo the tone in which he spoke of 
 " that Sunday morning." 
 
 Forty-six years subsequently, a youth lately from 
 Edinburgh was seated in the chapel in Mount- 
 melick, curious to hear the old missionary of whom 
 so much was said, and not at all supposing that the 
 " great change " in his own case was to be linked 
 on to one which had been wrought upon Ouseley 
 in Dunmore so many years before. The hearer is 
 now my friend the Rev. John Hay, without whose 
 loving labour on the Ouseley papers I could never 
 have undertaken to prepare this Memoir. He says, 
 " I wish I could reproduce his testimony as I 
 heard it on the morning of the 24th December 
 1837; but Montgomery's illustration seems as appli- 
 cable to it as it was to the impassioned and eloquent 
 Summerfield. The solemnity and loving earnestness 
 of his manner, the melting tone of his voice, the 
 beaming look of grateful joy, the flowing tears, the 
 impassioned character of his appeals, cannot be pro- 
 duced on paper. He spoke with a childlike sim- 
 plicity and an overflow of heart which impressed me 
 with the guilelessness and gratefulness of the preacher. 
 It seemed as if the change were with him the great
 
 42 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 event of his life, a continual wonder unto himself. 
 On the Sunday morning he had gone into his room, 
 with the resolution to remain there until he had 
 found peace to his anxious and alarmed soul. He 
 locked the door, and threw himself upon the floor, 
 and there groaned and cried for mercy. In the 
 exercise, to his amazement, a growing sense of hard- 
 ness of heart came upon him, and with it the 
 wondering thought, ' Am I ever to be saved ? ' and 
 then the appeal, ' Ah, Lord God ! is there no mercy for 
 me ? ' and still the growing sense of hardness. At 
 length, in the midst of his renewed and resolute 
 appeal, the thought of entire and instant submission 
 rose up within him, 'Lord, I submit I submit!' 
 and with that came up the thought of Jesus tfre 
 Saviour the Saviour for him ! ' I saw Jesus 
 Jesus the Saviour of sinners Jesus the Saviour for 
 me. I saw Him as the gift of the love of God to me. 
 Jesus loved me, and gave Himself for me ; and the 
 hardness of my heart all passed away. It melted at 
 the sight of that love of God to me, and I knew 
 yes, I knew that God had forgiven me all my sins ; 
 and my soul was filled with gladness, and I wept for 
 joy. Oh, 
 
 ' " Where shall my wondering soul begin?" 
 
 And ye all may be as I am. Yes, ye all may have 
 your sins forgiven, and your hard hearts softened, 
 and made blessedly happy in the love of God. God 
 loves you all, Jesus died for you all ay ! for the 
 Yi-ry worst of you. Come, my guilty brethren, 
 come I Won't you come, John ? Won't you come, 
 Mary?' And thus he proceeded, till all the congre- 
 gation seemed affected, many of them to tears."
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 43 
 
 Now the news ran that Gideon Ouseley had joined 
 the Methodists, and no doubt he was going inad. In 
 the mind of the young believer himself, fears soon 
 began to enter, troubling his new-found rest. " I 
 quickly fell into doubts and fears, thinking I had 
 deceived myself; but the Lord soon relieved me 
 again." We are not quite sure whether the relief 
 thus spoken of is the same as that manifestation of 
 the Comforter which, in his own interlocutory way, 
 he thus describes : " In a few days, while standing 
 in the street, God poured His Spirit upon me, so that 
 1 felt wonderful happiness, and indeed cried out, 
 ' What is this ? ' not understanding the thing properly. 
 Then I began to fear that I was guilty of presumption 
 in supposing that the Almighty should have a regard 
 to a thing so insignificant as I was. ' True,' said I, ' it 
 is presumption.' Again, however, I reflected that I 
 now possessed what before I had not. ' Did any man 
 give it to you ? ' ' No,' said I. ' Did any angel give it 
 to you? ' ' No,' said I. i And yet you say that God 
 did not give it to you ? ' l Oh, oh,' said I, i God did 
 give it to me.' I became so happy then that I can- 
 not describe my feelings." 
 
 The Methodists had kept directing him at every 
 point to the Bible; and now he became so hungry 
 and thirsty for what he found there, that he wanted 
 to know the whole of it at once. He was very far 
 indeed from being patient with his own stupidity, 
 there was so much of the Bible that he did not know, 
 and so much of what he did know that he could not 
 understand. With regard to these latter parts, oft- 
 times in following years he proved what angel-work 
 was reserved for him, when, bent over the places not
 
 44 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 yet understood, he searched diligently for new gems 
 in their depths of ever-brightening light. 
 
 He mentions that, some time in the month of 
 August that is, after a period of some three mouths, 
 during which he had been sometimes happy and some- 
 times harassed with doubts and fear he felt greatly 
 perplexed, and asked himself what he must now do. 
 The reply was, " Fast." But he was not quite ready 
 for this. " What good will that do me ? " And so 
 he had a conflict with himself for some time, but 
 eventually commenced the practice of fasting, and 
 very often recurred to it in subsequent life. 
 
 He now became convinced that, beyond all the mercy 
 already granted to him, he needed " a clean heart ; " 
 but he thought that it was " too much for me to 
 expect." Here the same conflict between law and 
 grace, which had to be fought out in seeking justifi- 
 cation, had to be fought over again, in seeking entire 
 sanctification. On grounds of law, we can expect only 
 what our obedience entitles us to ; and at first sight 
 this principle seems specially applicable to sanctifica- 
 tion. Indeed, so much is this the case, that many 
 who carefully teach that justification is by grace 
 through faith, practically, if not theoretically, take 
 it for granted that sanctification is only by works. 
 In so doing, they confound sanctification as a clean- 
 sing act of the Holy Spirit with sanctification as 
 the manifestation by the human soul of its own state 
 as cleansed. Life, as the secret force in a germ, 
 differencing the egg of an insect from a mote of clay, 
 is confounded with the development of life in growth, 
 motion, and habit. Human eye sees not the force, 
 nor does human ear hear it, nor can the heart cor-
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 45 
 
 rectly conceive what it is. Not we, but God can 
 put it there ; and if we want the mote changed into 
 an egg, all human skill fails us. But if any one says, 
 God has changed this mote into an egg we shall see. 
 Life will tell its own tale. The mote that He has 
 made to live will grow and move, and put forth 
 beauties and powers that dead mote never could put 
 forth. 
 
 It is obvious that his doubt turned on his personal 
 unworthiness, not on the question whether cleansing 
 was promised or not in the Word of God. He found 
 the promises clear, strong, exceeding great and pre- 
 cious. It was plain that God did not appoint His 
 children to uncleanness, but to holiness ; and that the 
 precious blood of Christ was of efficacy to cleanse us 
 from all sin, as much as from any. 
 
 But grace so great and full seemed to stand in 
 infinite contrast with his past life and present deserts. 
 " What I may expect," is judged not by what the 
 Lord hath said, but by what I am. Yet, when the 
 first principles of salvation by grace, and of faithful 
 promise-keeping, are understood, this soon appears 
 unreasonable, and the standard of hope rises to the 
 level of the Word. 
 
 About the middle of August 1791, one Sunday 
 after returning from church, "not having broken 
 my fast till then," his wife was reading to him a 
 narrative of the conversion of two clergymen, John 
 Janeway and his father. While listening to this, 
 he was marvellously affected ; more especially when 
 Mrs Ouseley read a prayer of John Janeway for 
 his father, and how the latter said, " Oh, son ! 
 now it is come, it is come, it is come ! the Spirit
 
 46 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 of God has witnessed with my spirit that I am 
 His child. I can now look up to God as my dear 
 Father, and to Christ as my Eedeemer. I can now 
 say, This is my Friend, and this is my Beloved. My 
 heart is full, it is brimful, it can hold no more. I 
 know now what that sentence means, l The peace of 
 God that passeth understanding.' ' It was forty-six 
 years after that memorable reading when Mr Ouseley, 
 in 1837, telling Mr Bonsall, said, (i This passage was 
 so applicable to my state, so encouraging, that ' as I 
 sat listening,' a mighty power from heaven fell upon 
 me," and here the old man paused, wept, and broke 
 out in thanksgiving to God. It was some time 
 before he could resume his tale, during which he 
 praised the holy name of his Redeemer that the ful- 
 ness of the blessing which was given in 1 791 had never 
 been withdrawn. When able to resume, he said, 
 " The manifestation was such as I never anticipated 
 or thought of; but it is written, ' Eye hath not seen 
 nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
 man, the things which God hath prepared for them 
 that love Him ; but God hath revealed them unto 
 me by His Spirit.' ' The words of several scriptures 
 were brought home to him with wonderful force. 
 " Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye 
 be as doves, whose wings are as silver, and their 
 feathers as yellow gold." " The light of the moon 
 ^hall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the 
 sun as the light of seven days." " Then the Lord 
 shall bind up the breach of His people, and heal 
 the stroke of their wound." 
 
 " Like the father of John Janeway," he says, " I 
 was unable, I am still unable, to express what glorious
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 
 
 discoveries God made of Himself to me. Astonished 
 and bathed in tears, I fell on my knees, and cried, 
 * My God, my God ! I never thought that such happi- 
 ness was to be attained in this world.' The reply was, 
 ' See that scripture, The kingdom of God is at hand.' 
 I said, ' my God ! I thought " at hand " meant that 
 I should go to heaven when I die.' The voice replied, 
 1 You are mistaken.' I got up from my knees greatly 
 rejoicing, and then went to the prayer-meeting, and 
 began to tell, with tears and joy, what God had done 
 for my soul. From this time forth, wherever I went 
 I spoke of the ' things of God,' " telling of a kingdom, 
 not in the golden clouds of a distant world, but 
 within you a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and 
 joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The Lord had long been training a harvest-man, 
 and now He was thrusting him forth into the harvest. 
 When He seeks labourers, He -goes not to the places 
 we should have thought of, nor does He cast in the 
 moulds we should call most becoming ; and He gives 
 only one certificate, which, though generally admitted 
 by the wise of the next generation, as a rule, is satis- 
 factory only to the simple in the present one : " By 
 their fruits ye shall know them."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS. 
 
 THE candle was now lighted, and could not be hidden 
 under either bed or bushel. First, it had to show 
 light to those " who were in the house." The change 
 which had passed upon Gideon was naturally matter 
 of remark among all his friends. His father took it 
 as one phase of his development, which, like the rest, 
 must run its course. His wife was pleased with it so 
 long as it remained within bounds ; but the inten- 
 sity of his religious feelings, and the absorption of 
 mind which followed, alarmed her. All admitted the 
 wonderful moral improvement, and, so far as that was 
 concerned, were delighted ; but his zeal was very 
 objectionable, and still more so his Methodism. 
 Could he not have gathered the strawberries without 
 bending his back to that plant growing so low ? 
 
 Still, so long as he confined himself to private 
 exertions among his friends, the opposition did not 
 rise to any head; and before that took place, she 
 who stood nearest to him was gradually entering 
 into sympathy with his views. On the one hand, 
 she gently tried to persuade him that he was allow- 
 ing religion to absorb his mind too much, and that 
 both reason and health might suffer. On the other
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS. 49 
 
 hand, he sought by all means to bring her to the 
 knowledge of that blessed Saviour who had made 
 the earth a new world for him. Whatever Mrs 
 Ouseley might privately think, she was too amiable 
 not to accommodate herself to her husband's ways. 
 Gradually, his prayers, the frequent conversations 
 she heard between him and his new friends, and the 
 books that were continually in his hand, told upon 
 her own mind. She too, feeling that she was a 
 sinner even as others, sought mercy as he had done. 
 In about a twelvemonth after his own conversion, 
 she became a partaker of like precious faith, happy 
 in the Saviour who had made him happy. Thence- 
 forth husband and wife were as one soul. It would 
 be very hard to conceive union more sympathetic 
 and practical. If he was the one to brave the storms, 
 she bore the cold ; and many observers felt, what 
 both Mr Huston and Mr Reilly have put into words, 
 that it was hard to know which to admire most, the 
 husband in his labour or the wife in her solitude, 
 so well did both fulfil the peculiar parts to which 
 they were called by the common Master. 
 
 It would seem as if the solicitude of Mrs Ouseley 
 concerning the health and reason of her husband was 
 not the idle fear often indulged by those who wish 
 to check promise of decided Christian devotedness in 
 the bud. At first, Mr Ouseley no doubt showed 
 extravagances, which in one remarkable case came to 
 a crisis, and so wrought their own cure. 
 
 Like all young converts, when meaning to follow 
 the Lord fully, he says, " I was very strict over 
 myself, and judged and condemned myself with se- 
 verity for forgetfulness and mistakes, though, as far 
 
 D
 
 50 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 as I know, few of them were intentional. I pined for 
 unbroken fellowship with God, to be saved from every 
 doubt and fear. As I afterwards discovered, I wanted 
 to be saved from trials and temptations. When 
 tempted, I accused myself of unfaithfulness ; and on 
 some occasions properly so, for my faith was dull, and I 
 tampered with evil suggestions, instead of resisting." 
 In this state of mind occurred what might well 
 alarm Mrs Ouseley, and what, indeed, to make it per- 
 fectly credible, requires his own words, which we have 
 before us. It is a proof of his tenacity of resolution, 
 and also of his bodily strength, such as required the 
 subsequent course of a long life fully to corroborate. 
 He says, " Shortly after the late gracious manifesta- 
 tion I had received, darkness came upon me, and I 
 thought of St Paul's fasting, I resolved to try to 
 fast three days. I did so, and found no pain on 
 account of the fast, and continued three days more 
 doing so, and did not eat a morsel or even drink a 
 drop of water during those six days, till I received 
 the sacrament in the church on Sunday, and all 
 through the time I felt sweetness as if I had been 
 drinking honey. After that I had a great fit of sick- 
 ness, and thought I should have died. When in the 
 greatest agony, my happiness subsided for a little 
 while. Then a thought struck me, ' Whither shall I 
 go when I die ? ' not having the witness then. But 
 that scripture occurred to me, * Him that cometh to 
 me, I will in no wise cast out.' Another voice seemed 
 to say, c Do not touch that promise : did you come to 
 Him ; did you come off from every sin ? ' I replied, 
 * Lord, Thou knowest that, from such a time (about 
 thirteen weeks before), I did quit every known sin,
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS. 51 
 
 and submitted to my Redeemer.' Then the promise 
 came home fully, and I became exquisitely happy. 
 I thought I should die, and got up and settled my 
 affairs, without telling the reason to my wife. After 
 that, my health began to recover rapidly, and I was 
 soon restored." 
 
 Here we have a will strong enough to beat down 
 the most imperious of our appetites ; and yet we 
 remember, that when this man fought his desires 
 in his own strength, he could not overcome them. 
 What a proof is this of the power of sin to lead the 
 strongest will captive ! His continuous fasting was 
 not the wild enthusiasm of a weakling, but the 
 dogged will - force of a very resolute man, whose 
 former want of self-command is easily accounted 
 for by those who believe in the fall and depravity of 
 human nature. Those who deny that doctrine, when 
 they take to explaining such a fact, resort to odd 
 means, as untrue to the philosophy they profess to 
 serve as to the religion they wish to shun. 
 
 It was not for long that speaking of the things 
 of God merely to his friends and acquaintances 
 would suffice. He soon began to feel a loud inward 
 call to go out into the highways and hedges, and 
 summon the people to repentance. Even his private 
 efforts brought ridicule. " I was laughed at, arid 
 looked upon as an enthusiast, and ridiculed for 
 giving myself to such a people. But I maintained 
 that their doctrine was only what I had learned as 
 a Churchman from my youth up, except that they 
 directed my mind to the inward experience of it 
 through the Holy Ghost ; and therefore the re- 
 proaches moved me not. Through grace I persevered.
 
 52 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 Those who most derided me were, iii general, the 
 sober professors of religion." 
 
 But the call to go forth publicly resounded 
 louder and louder within. What could he do ? He 
 felt that he neither knew how to begin a sermon 
 nor how to " carry it on." But this did not decide 
 the conflict. He would say, as Mr Hay tells, " The 
 voice said, * Gideon, go and preach the gospel ! ' 
 But he so felt his ignorance and unworthiness that 
 he pleaded, " Lord, I am a poor ignorant creature. 
 How can I go? Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot 
 speak, for I am a child." Then it would rush into 
 his mind, " Do you not know the disease ? " " Oh yes, 
 Lord,Ido." "And do you not know the cure ?" "Oh 
 yes, glory be to Thy name ! I do." " Go then and 
 tell them these two things, the disease and the 
 cure ; never mind the rest; the rest is only talk." 
 " So," he would conclude^ " with the knowledge of 
 only these two things I went forth ; and here I am, 
 these forty years (or more, as it might be) telling 
 of the disease and the cure." This seems to me to 
 agree almost exactly with what fell from his lips 
 the only time I ever heard him preach, when I was 
 yet a boy. While his mind was divided by alter- 
 nate urging and reluctance on this subject, he says, 
 " I was afraid Satan would deceive me, and I often 
 went into .the churchyard to reflect on the state of the 
 dead. One day I was standing over the grave of a 
 man named Murphy, who had been buried the day 
 before ; and I asked myself, ' Am I to lie among 
 the dead?' I felt a recoil from it, and said, ' Ah, 
 what means this?' The scripture came to me, 
 ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ;
 
 FIRS T A TTEMP TS AT USEFULNESS. 5 3 
 
 hear ye Him :' but if ye will not hear Him, I never 
 will be pleased. I then became determined, and 
 said, * I will make no more excuses, should it even 
 cost my life, should they dash out my brains.' I 
 saw that I must speak to the people in the streets ; 
 and I promised God that, as my way opened, I would 
 devote myself wholly to His service." 
 
 The parish burying - ground lay within view of 
 his own residence. While his heart was full of 
 these feelings, the funeral of a neighbour entered it. 
 The wild " Keena " rose from the women and rung 
 in his ears ; and no doubt the whole bearing of the 
 crowd showed that the mourning was, as he says, 
 formal and ceremonial. The hour had come. 
 Forth he went, entered the sacred enclosure, and 
 began to address the crowd. 
 
 " The rude forefathers of the hamlet " is a familiar 
 word ; but it would be hard to find a ruder church- 
 yard than that of Dunmore. And it is vain to look, 
 at present, for any trace of the particular gravestone, 
 among the many weather-worn ones wherewith it is 
 crowded, on which or by which the robust man 
 stood, and round which his peasant-hearers clustered. 
 
 We have no record of that first sermon or of how 
 it was received. They all knew him, and what he 
 had been. He had nothing to tell them but the 
 two points, the disease and the cure. These he told 
 as well as he was able ; and all we certainly know is, 
 that on that day began a course of labour which has 
 borne much fruit. It would appear that he soon 
 took other similar opportunities of preaching. " I 
 had to go forth sometimes to churchyards when the 
 Roman Catholics were burying their dead, and told
 
 54 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 those attending, generally in the Irish tongue, the 
 sinful state that they were in, that no effort of 
 man, nor any ' service' could relieve them ; that God 
 only, for the sake of Christ, could or would give His 
 Holy Spirit, whereby alone they could be saved. 
 The priest told them not to heed me, that I had lost 
 my senses ; but they frequently replied to him, * If 
 you would hear him, sir, you would find there is 
 good sense -in every word he says.' ' 
 
 Hitherto any opposition he had met with from his 
 friends had been mild. Their relief at witnessing the 
 moral change wrought in him blunted their feelings 
 of antipathy to his decided godliness ; but now it 
 was becoming too bad. By this time we find a 
 curate added to the personalities of Dunmore. He 
 was specially indignant. Mr Ouseley plainly says 
 respecting him that he was "neither sober nor 
 moral." Nevertheless, he had his sesthetics of 
 religion as well as other people, and greatly resented 
 the unseemly proceedings of Gideon. "It is bad 
 enough that he has himself embraced these new 
 opinions, but to propagate them, and make others as 
 bad as himself, is intolerable." Hitherto the curate 
 had been proud of his large-mindedness; he "allowed 
 every man to go to heaven in his own way ; " but 
 Gideon's way would never do. He actually taught 
 the people that Christ was to save them, not in their 
 sins, but from their sins, and that the Holy Spirit was 
 not merely a solemn name in the Creed, but a living 
 agent, operating on the hearts of ordinary people. 
 
 So one Sunday morning the curate came out with 
 a great sermon against the Methodists, whose doc- 
 trines were " rank nonsense," and their motives bad.
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS. 55 
 
 " They taught," says Mr Bonsall's representation of 
 Mr Ouseley's words, " that man is fallen, utterly gone 
 from righteousness ; and that while he cannot recover 
 himself from sin, or do any work, or even think a 
 thought, to be approved or accepted of G-od, there is 
 nevertheless a way of recovery, through the agency 
 of the Holy Ghost, whereby repentance towards God 
 and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ may result. All 
 this, he denounced with severity and anger." 
 
 When the preacher closed, Gideon stood up in his 
 pew, and affectionately but firmly urged that the 
 doctrines denounced were exactly those of the Bible, 
 and, indeed, those of the Liturgy, which the clergyman 
 had just read, citing the words as witness. Greatly 
 excited, the curate cried, " Do you know what you 
 are doing, sir?" "I do, sir," replied Gideon; "I am 
 striving to persuade you that you should not preach 
 false doctrine, and to guard those that heard you from 
 its effects." Little wonder that the curate replied, 
 " Only that you are John Ouseley's son, I would do 
 as the law empowers me fine and confine you, sir." 
 
 One can imagine the stir made in a place like 
 Dunmore by this event. If it had its bad side, it had 
 its use. " Many," says Mr Ouseley, " heard in a 
 few words truths they never had heard before, and 
 were induced both to hear and to converse on sub- 
 jects which they had shunned. The rector came 
 and called upon Gideon, accompanied by his own 
 father, and both " reprobated his conduct in the 
 severest terms." The rector said, " But for regard for 
 your family" (his wife was Gideon's cousin), "and that 
 I believe you to be crazed or the dupe of fanatics, I 
 would proceed against you in the Bishop's court."
 
 56 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 His father told him that he disgraced him, and 
 insisted that he should give up preaching, or he 
 would disown him. He gently replied, that to give 
 offence was no design of his, but at any risk he 
 would obey God rather" than man. Even on the 
 point, which he would have been the last to defend 
 when more experienced, he then insisted that, how- 
 ever painful to his feelings, his sense of duty to God 
 and the people would oblige him to correct misre- 
 presentations either in church or out of it. Years 
 afterwards, he learned that his father would have 
 thought worse of him had he not acted up to his 
 views of duty. Still, for the present, the east wind 
 blew keenly. Mr Richard Ouseley of Prospect,* who 
 would seem to have been the most important of the 
 Ouseleys at this time, strongly joined in the petty 
 persecution. 
 
 One day his father came to his house, and asked, 
 " Where is Gideon ? " When Mrs Ouseley told him 
 that he was away somewhere preaching, " He looked 
 at me," she said, and replied, * I pity you, my child ; 
 indeed I do. That fellow will ruin himself and bring 
 you to beggary.' I replied, ' Sir, why are you so 
 violent against your son ? When he has spent nights 
 in sin, and when you have seen him scarce able to 
 walk home, you administered no reproof, and you 
 evinced no displeasure; but now that he has broken 
 off from practices that were sinful, and that must 
 have brought ruin upon him, and when he is striving 
 to serve God, you speak against him and oppose him.' 
 He hung his head, but made no reply." 
 
 * Probably Mr Ralph Ouseley, the father of Sir William and Sir 
 Gore, had then removed to Limerick, where he ended his days.
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS. 57 
 
 But if his father rated him, he would not let others 
 speak ill of him, and behind his back would say, 
 " Gideon is right, and we are wrong." Mr Eichard 
 Ouseley also, before his death, expressed the same 
 feeling, and showed great sorrow for the course he 
 had taken with regard to Gideon, and his last days 
 were lighted with cheering Christian hope. 
 
 Gradually Gideon extended the sphere of his 
 efforts, pushing out to neighbouring places, and 
 even into neighbouring counties, preaching in the 
 graveyards and the streets, wherever he could find 
 hearers. He sweetly used the Irish tongue, which 
 won a way to the ear of the multitude as nothing else 
 could do ; and yet they often opposed, and actively 
 persecuted him ; but, as if a supernatural shield 
 was always over him, he escaped any serious hurt. 
 His own house became a home of the disciples. A 
 class of a dozen members was formed in it. Probably 
 when the soldiers of the regiment through whose 
 instrumentality he was himself led to join the 
 Methodist Society removed, the class had been 
 changed from the public-house to his home. Of the 
 dozen members meeting there, about one-half were of 
 his own relations, who had formerly been opposed to 
 his new ways. Mrs Ouseley became a nursing mother 
 to the little flock. When he was away on distant 
 excursions, she was both praying for him, and endea- 
 vouring to supply his place by Christian attentions 
 to those who came to his house, and efforts to edify 
 them. 
 
 Some five years passed in Dunmore in this kind 
 of labour, irregular only in the fact that it depended 
 entirely upon his own impulse and will. Of those
 
 58 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 efforts we have no formal record, but traces of them 
 still exist, which show that they must have been prodi- 
 gious. Families in widely-distant neighbourhoods, 
 which traced their conversion to his instrumentality in 
 those days, are still to be found, and some of his sons 
 in the gospel, who afterwards laboured in the same 
 fields, rejoiced to trace back their conversion to these 
 his earliest efforts. Among such, the name of Rev. 
 William Cornwall was particularly well known, and 
 is to be held in remembrance ; for it was he 
 who, in years long subsequent, became the happy 
 instrument in the hands of God of the conversion 
 of Mr Ouseley's aged father; and it was with no 
 ordinary feelings that the former regarded this 
 precious fruit given to his spiritual child. Writ- 
 ing to his brother Ralph, only about a year 
 before his own death, he thus reminded him of his 
 father's case : " This did my dear father find, even 
 in his last illness, that his guilt, oppression, and 
 terror were removed. While looking between despon- 
 dency and feeble hope to Christ, who saith, * Look 
 unto me, all the ends of the earth, and be ye saved. 
 . . . Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise 
 cast out,' he testified this to our sister Anne, then 
 attending on him, as she told me." This same 
 spiritual son of his, Mr Cornwall, was also the in- 
 strument in the conversion of the excellent lady at 
 Ballinahinch Castle, the wife of the celebrated author 
 of " Martin's Act against Cruelty to Animals." * 
 
 The " Patrons " of the country, of which we shall 
 hear more in the sequel, were one of the gathering- 
 
 * An interesting notice of this is fount! in an article in the " Sunday 
 at Home" on the Martins of Connemara.
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS. 59 
 
 places to which he resorted ; and he did not forget 
 either the "Stations" or the wakes. The latter 
 formed one of the most striking features of the com- 
 munity in the midst of which he lived. However 
 poor might be the family at the " dead house," and 
 however ruinous the loss which they had sustained 
 by the bereavement, they were bound to furnish pipes, 
 tobacco, and snuff for as many as would come, gene- 
 rally as many as the house would hold, and who 
 spent the entire night in revelry. If whisky was 
 not also provided, the people were mean ; and if 
 plentifully supplied, they were excellent. In apple- 
 season, the guests generally furnished themselves 
 with that fruit, at the cost of any orchard that might 
 be within reach. All the fellows in the neighbour- 
 hood who were wits, or thought themselves such, 
 looked on the wake as a stage for the development 
 of their talent. Whoever could invent the most 
 boisterous sport was the greatest man. It was a 
 theatre for the antics of which the grotesque side of 
 the Irish character is capable, and for training the 
 young to think that such foolery had a kind of sacred 
 sanction. The anguish of the death-wail mingled, 
 at least repeatedly alternated, with indecorous songs 
 and jokes, and many a wild oath found its place 
 between. Folly and Vice were formally presented in 
 the chamber of Death, and installed there as if fit for 
 any presence. This mixture of the deepest sorrows 
 of humanity with the grossest levity was enough to 
 undermine all depth of character, and form a people 
 governed only by impulse, taking up any feeling for 
 the moment, and trifling with them all. 
 
 Into scenes of this kind Mr Ouseley would make
 
 60 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 his way, and kindly greeting the people, would, with 
 solemnity and pathos, entreat them to prepare to 
 meet their God. Before the interment took place, 
 the scene at a wake was often varied by the presence 
 of a priest, who said mass, and collected " offerings " 
 for the soul of the departed. Carleton sketches a 
 scene where the altar is a little table, and the first 
 offering is laid on a plate placed on the altar; 
 whereupon the priest carries the plate round, and 
 the name of each contributor is proclaimed with the 
 amount he has laid down. He makes the priest 
 appeal to a Protestant gentleman, who expresses a 
 doubt whether his guinea did not bear a heretical 
 mark, but the priest replies that, in that case, the 
 only thing to be done is to restore it to the true 
 Church, and then it will be within the pale, assuring 
 him, moreover, that he will find it before him when 
 he goes to St Peter. In certain neighbourhoods, if 
 not generally, this process of raising money for the 
 good of the departed was called "canting" (that is, 
 auctioning) " the soul." 
 
 Mr Reilly has related an instance of the appear- 
 ance of Mr Onseley in the midst of such a scene. 
 Two or three other versions of the tale are before 
 me ; and I remember having heard it from the late 
 Rev. John Holmes, nearly forty years ago, during 
 the lifetime of Mr Ouseley, and all the forms of it are 
 substantially identical. As the priest was reading 
 mass, and the multitude were on their knees, a 
 stranger suddenly rode up. Dismounting, he knelt 
 in the midst of the congregation with manifest solem- 
 nity. As the priest went on reading in a tongue of 
 which the people knew not a word, the stranger
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS. 61 
 
 caught up passage after passage, selecting, though un- 
 known to his hearers, those portions which conveyed 
 directly scriptural truth or solemn warnings. He 
 suddenly turned the words from Latin into Irish, 
 and repeated aloud after the priest. Then, with deep 
 feeling, he cried at the end of each passage, " Listen 
 to that ! " The priest seems to have been overwhelmed 
 and awed, and the people completely melted. When 
 the' mass was ended, and all rose up, Mr Ouseley, with 
 a face beaming with affection, urged upon the people 
 the necessity of having their peace made with God, 
 telling them they must become reconciled to Him, 
 and that it was possible so to do by real repentance 
 and true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 As he was taking his departure, the crowd cried to 
 
 the priest, " Father , who is that? Who is he 
 
 at all ? " 
 
 " I do not know," said the priest : " he is not a man 
 at all ; sure, he is an angel. No man could do what 
 he has done." 
 
 Mr Ouseley was forthwith mounted and gone. 
 
 Long afterwards he met with a peasant, and accost- 
 ing him, had a conversation, which we give in the 
 words of Mr Reilly : 
 
 " My dear man, would you not like to be reconciled 
 to God, to have His peace in your heart, and stand 
 clear before the great Judge when He will come in 
 the clouds of heaven to judge the world ? " 
 
 " Oh, glory be to His holy and blessed name, sir, 
 I have this peace in my heart ; and the Lord be 
 praised that I ever saw your face." 
 
 " You have ! what do you know about this peace ? 
 when did you see me ? "
 
 62 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 " Don't you remember the day, sir, that you were 
 at the ( berrin ' (burial), when the priest was saying 
 mass ? " 
 
 " I do very well. What about that day ? " 
 
 "Oh, gentleman, you told us then how to get that 
 peace, and I went, blessed be His holy name, to 
 Jesus Christ my Saviour, and got it in my heart, and 
 have had it here ever since." 
 
 Another fact connected with this period is related 
 by Mr Reilly, which I do not remember to have seen 
 elsewhere. A Roman Catholic gentleman, a neigh- 
 bour of Mr Ouseley's, on calling found him engaged 
 in some mathematical work, and made some remarks 
 in praise of the science. " Yes," he replied, " there 
 is Euclid " (pointing to the book) ; "if you abide by 
 him, he will bear you out ; but if, in any one 
 instance, you depart from the principles laid down 
 by him, you forfeit all claim to his support, and you 
 will inevitably go astray." 
 
 " That is very true," rejoined his neighbour. 
 
 " Very well, sir," continued Mr Ouseley, " take 
 up the New Testament, read it ; and if you abide in 
 the truth revealed in it, you will be infallibly right, 
 Christ the Lord, the great author of that book, will 
 stand by you. If, however, you forsake it, you deny 
 Christ ; and if you are priest, or bishop, or pope, 
 Christ will disown you." 
 
 One day when travelling, a strange gentleman rode 
 up to him. Mr Ouseley very soon introduced his one 
 great theme, how Christ, the blessed Lord, had come 
 down from heaven to give salvation to His creatures, 
 rich or poor. The gentleman expressed doubts as to 
 the truth of Christianity; and then began one of those
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS. 63 
 
 typical series of questions, which he used with effect 
 throughout life, commencing with generalities, which 
 his interlocutors readily conceded, and going on, 
 until he was prepared to clinch a nail which they did 
 not know he had been driving. 
 
 " Don't you think, sir, that Jesus Christ was at 
 least a good man? " 
 
 " Why, ye-e-s, I do." 
 
 " Do you not think He was a good Teacher ? " 
 
 " Indeed, I must acknowledge that I think He 
 was." 
 
 "Another step, sir. Is it not your opinion that 
 He was really the best Teacher that ever the world 
 saw ? " 
 
 The gentleman said with some hesitation, " Well, 
 in candour, I must admit that it was my opinion 
 that He was. But then" 
 
 " But then ! What then, sir ? Can you blame 
 me for learning from the best Teacher that ever the 
 world saw?" 
 
 The gentleman seemed more surprised and pleased, 
 says Mr Reilly, than confounded ; and it is hoped that 
 the conversation resulted in convincing a sceptic at 
 least of the truth of Christianity. 
 
 Many years later, Mr Ouseley, in describing how 
 one of his spiritual children was awakened and 
 brought to the knowledge of the truth, had to refer 
 to an anecdote he told when preaching. This 
 anecdote belonged to the time of which we are now 
 speaking; and yet, as long afterwards as 1823, the 
 relation of it to a crowd in the street was made the 
 instrument of a remarkable conversion. He met a 
 poor man on the road, whom he would probably
 
 64 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 know at first sight to be a pilgrim. He fouud he 
 was coming from the Reek, as the majestic cone of 
 Croaghpatrick is called, which stands on the south 
 of Clew Bay. The mountain is very holy; indeed, 
 it ought to be, if it is not the very one from which 
 St Patrick gave all the venomous reptiles their final 
 orders to depart from the Green Isle, and to bury 
 themselves in the depths of the sea. A text in the 
 classics of Connaught, which perhaps represents less 
 the faith of the writer than his knowledge of the 
 faith cherished by many around him, says 
 
 " 'Twas on the top of that high hill 
 Saint Patrick preached his sermon." 
 
 When Mr Ouseley met the pilgrim, he asked him 
 where he had been. 
 
 " To the Reek," was the reply, the distance 
 being fourscore miles. 
 
 " What were you doing there, poor man ? " 
 
 " Looking for God, sir." 
 
 " On what part of the hill did you expect to find 
 Him?" 
 
 The poor fellow replied, with tears in his eyes, " I 
 did not think of that, sir." 
 
 Mr Ouseley then put the question, " Where is 
 God?" to which the reply naturally was, " Every- 
 where ; " and now came out the point. 
 
 " When the sun is up, where in Ireland is the 
 daylight ? " 
 
 Of course the poor pilgrim replied, " Sure, sir, it 
 is everywhere." 
 
 " So, then, it is about your own cabin as much 
 as in any place. Would it not, then, be a strange
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT USEFULNESS. 65 
 
 thing for you to go fourscore miles, and bruise your 
 poor feet so, looking for the daylight ? " 
 
 The man paused. " Oh, the Lord help us, sir ! 
 and sure I never saw the folly of it before. I will 
 never take another pilgrimage." 
 
 This was the kind of training which Mr Ouseley 
 underwent for the duties of the ministry. The 
 theory of the Methodists is that no training for the 
 work of God is like training in it ; and that, how- 
 ever valuable study in preparation for the ministry 
 may be, actual service is absolutely indispensable ; 
 and when that is voluntarily rendered, in such a way 
 as to give full proof of call and qualification, it offers 
 a certificate with which no other can be admitted 
 into comparison. 
 
 During this period, Mr Ouseley never seems to 
 have had a thought of being " called out " by the 
 Methodist Conference, as he was past the ordinary 
 years, and a married man. He none the less burned 
 with an inward fire a fire in his bones, impelling 
 him to spend all his time in seeking, like his Master, 
 in order to save that which was lost. 
 
 He very deeply felt, however, that it was hard for 
 him to subject his wife to all the consequences of 
 such constant devotion to public work as his own 
 heart yearned for, involving almost constant absence 
 from her, and neglect of home interests. Although 
 I have no written authority, I have verbally heard, 
 from more than one, that in some journeys he 
 visited the markets for linen yarn, and purchased 
 for trade. This seems not improbable, as the linen 
 trade, though chiefly carried on in Ulster, is not 
 wholly confined to it. He wished to leave Dunmore,
 
 66 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 for what reasons we have no clear information. His 
 devoted wife, seeing his perplexity, said to him, " I 
 will go with you, my dear, and you can go from town 
 to town and preach." These words seem to have 
 formed a sort of crisis in his life, as if he had felt 
 them to be a kind of paper of manumission ; and to 
 her he always felt unfeignedly grateful for so enter- 
 ing into the spirit of his calling. They prepared to 
 leave Dunmore.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RESIDENCE AND LABOURS IN BALLYMOTE AND SLIGO. 
 
 WE have not light enough to enable us to form even 
 a conjecture as to why he settled in the little town of 
 Ballymote, in the county of Sligo, after removing 
 from Dunmore. This took place in 1797. He took 
 lodgings, however, in the house of Mr Farquhar, and 
 forthwith commenced a course of evangelistic labour 
 such as he had long pursued. He pushed it so far, 
 that, according to the testimony of Mr Jackson 
 Hawksby of that town, given to the Rev. Graham 
 Campbell, he was soon put into the Black Hole of 
 the barracks in Sligo for disturbing the peace by 
 preaching. No trace of this imprisonment is to be 
 found in his own papers, but that proves nothing; 
 for many of his sufferings and dangers, even long 
 after his character had become public, were never put 
 upon record. Mr Bonsall truly says, that often the 
 first his relatives would hear of some peril and escape 
 would be when notices of it occurred in public papers. 
 I distinctly remember a statement made respecting 
 the town of Ballymote by a highly respectable Pres- 
 byterian clergyman. He had come from the north 
 of Ireland to undertake for a while duties in a con- 
 gregation not very far from the town, at a period, I
 
 63 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 should think, about twenty years subsequent to the 
 time that Mr Ouseley sojourned there. On the first 
 Sunday morning, his mind was naturally pre-occupied 
 with the Sabbath-keeping ideas of his native country. 
 He looked out of the window, and saw a gentleman 
 in a dogcart, with a shooting-belt across his chest 
 and a fowling-piece beside him, driving down the 
 street accompanied by dogs. Turning in horror to 
 Mrs Lougheed, the wife of the excellent Methodist 
 doctor, at whose house he stayed, he asked 
 
 " Who is that ? " 
 
 She looked out and said, " It is the Rev. Mr , 
 
 our rector." 
 
 " And where is he going ? " 
 
 "To church, to perform the service." 
 
 " To church!" 
 
 " Yes. He will put a surplice over his shooting- 
 jacket, and when he is done, he will go on to his 
 sport." 
 
 By the time the rector had done duty, and 
 reached the outside of the town, the congregation 
 of the "Chapel" was dispersing. He pulled up, 
 and the parish priest came out and mounted beside 
 him. His name I forget, but I very distinctly 
 remember that of the Presbyterian minister, who 
 lived some considerable distance in the country, and 
 was to join the party. However, when rector and 
 
 priest reached his door, the Rev. Mr was too 
 
 tipsy to go along witli them. 
 
 About a twelvemonth after hearing this story, 
 I had an opportunity of asking Mrs Lougheed if 
 she remembered the facts. She very well remem- 
 bered Dr 13 (the Presbyterian clergyman who
 
 LABOURS IN BALLYMOTE AND SLIGO. 69 
 
 told me), and how he was shocked at something 
 on the first Sunday morning he was with them ; and 
 as to the details of his statement, they offered no 
 difficulties to her, but she did not profess particularly 
 to remember them. She had stories of her own to 
 tell. It ought to be added, to the credit of the 
 Presbyterian Church, that the one of those three 
 worthies pertaining to it was brought under disci- 
 pline. He long survived his degradation, making 
 a penny by marrying runaway couples. 
 
 One such fact as this illustrates the state of 
 religion and morals then prevalent in Ireland 
 better than could be done by a string of general 
 assertions. If things were in that state twenty 
 years after Mr Ouseley began his toil, what had they 
 been twenty years before. It is no wonder that, 
 in the remote regions of Ireland, scattered Protestant 
 families rapidly merged into the mass of superstition 
 around them, and that in some districts they were 
 lost wholesale ; and their descendants now form the 
 bitterest enemies of Protestantism and of England. 
 
 Mr Ouseley seems to have had no idea of anything 
 short of constant itinerancy. Not only in every one 
 of the five counties of Connaught, but in several 
 towns of Leiuster, and a few of Ulster, he made 
 his appearance on horseback, the people wondering 
 who he was, where he came from, what had sent 
 him, and altogether feeling as if a voice from the 
 unknown had reached them, and brought strange 
 things to their ears. In fair or market, at burial 
 or patron, he took his stand, and cried aloud. He 
 also succeeded in gaining access to the jails, visiting 
 both the debtors and criminals.
 
 70 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 The mutteriugs of the storm which burst in 1798 
 were already disturbing every part of the country. 
 Lawless bands, called Whiteboys, Rightboys, De- 
 fenders, and other such, were being formed every- 
 where, in preparation for the combined outbreak. 
 The intellect and craft were generally supplied by 
 the priests ; and of those whom they deluded, some 
 would every now and then be found in prisons, 
 frequently under sentence of death. Mr Bonsall 
 tells us, that in the town of Roscominon, Mr 
 Ouseley visited a convict sentenced to death. While 
 he preached Christ to him, the man at first heard with 
 sullen and stupid disregard, but after some time, 
 looking up at him with a feeling of astonishment, 
 inquired, " Are you an angel or a man; or who or 
 what are you ? " Mr Ouseley prayed with him, and 
 when taking his leave, the man importuned him to 
 visit him again, and also to visit a fellow-convict in 
 the same prison, like himself, sentenced to death, 
 for some crime connected with what was then called 
 the " Threshers." The first of these two men was 
 savingly converted to God. He expressed a strong 
 desire to have Mr Ouseley with him at the time of 
 execution; but this he was not able to comply with, 
 as he was bound by promise to visit others, who 
 were also appointed to death, lying in the jail of 
 Carrick-on-Shannon. He advised the man that, 
 when he came to the place of execution, he should 
 not attempt to speechify, but should keep his mind 
 occupied in prayer, looking unto God. His conduct 
 was according to this advice, except that he counselled 
 his wife and children to attend to their eternal 
 interests ; otherwise he spake not, except to God
 
 LABOURS IN BALLYMOTE AND SLIGO. 71 
 
 in prayer, and with a grateful heart testifying that it 
 was God who had sent Mr Ouseley to him. 
 
 The other man, whom this one had requested Mr 
 Ouseley to visit, feeling sure that as soon as he 
 heard he would embrace the truth, raged like a fiend 
 and refused to hear. Even at the place of execution, 
 he prayed for vengeance upon all who were concerned 
 in his detection and death. 
 
 Now, for the first time, Mr Ouseley begins to 
 appear as seen by the eyes of other men. Hitherto 
 we have only had jottings of his own recollections, 
 as taken down by his nephew very broken, and 
 always saying as little about himself as possible. In 
 1836, before Mr Ouseley's death, the Eev. Matthew 
 Langtree published an autobiography full of material 
 illustrating the condition of religion in Ireland, and 
 the early work of the Methodist preachers. Speaking 
 of Boyle, a town in Roscommon, which he visited 
 when he was junior preacher on the Sligo Circuit, he 
 says : 
 
 " It was here I first saw my friend and brother 
 Mr Gideon Ouseley, that eminent Irish missionary. 
 He was not then in our itinerant ministry, though 
 exceedingly zealous in his public and private, 
 ordinary and extraordinary labours, calling sinners to 
 repentance, particularly the Irish. The night before 
 he came, I had a most impressive dream respecting 
 a man I had never known, with solemn aspect, and 
 a defect in one of his eyes. He appeared to be 
 present when I was about to preach. Satan en- 
 deavoured to exert an uncommon influence to prevent 
 my first prayer. This stranger, I apprehended, came 
 forward and overthrew him, and immediately an
 
 72 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 astonishing work of God commenced. When I saw 
 Mr Ouseley the next day, I was quite surprised ; 
 his face was familiar ; he was the man I had seen 
 in my dream. A remarkable influence attended his 
 ministry that evening ; and I shall scarcely forget 
 his conversation and pleadings with God the same 
 night when we retired to our bedchamber." 
 
 We find that in the next year, 1798, the memor- 
 able year of the last great Rebellion, he took up his 
 residence in Sligo, and there opened a girls' school. 
 One says it was a large school ; but no one explains 
 how he kept it together and at the same time pur- 
 sued his work. Perhaps, during this interval, he 
 was not so much occupied in itinerant labours as at 
 other times ; yet we have hints of his being here 
 and there, falling in with parties of rebels by night, 
 having the shoes taken off his horse's feet to make 
 pikes' heads, and so on, as if he had nothing else to 
 do but scour the country preaching everywhere. He 
 always spoke as if at this time he had known but 
 very little as to the doctrines of Christianity. His 
 early impatience to understand everything in the 
 Bible had not worn out, but the spirit which urged 
 him to seek that which was lost led him to address 
 Protestants and Roman Catholics indiscriminately. 
 He no more thought of passing by the latter than 
 the former ; and when he came to urge them to seek 
 the Lord, he found that so much of what they believed 
 had " nothing whatever to do with the Bible," that 
 it was absolutely necessary, if he would converse with 
 them intelligently, to study the Missal, the Catechism 
 of the Council of Trent, the Canons of the same 
 Council, the Christian Doctrine, and so on. He also
 
 LABOURS IN BALLYMOTE AND SLIGO. 73 
 
 painfully felt that, as a rule, Protestants did not take 
 the trouble to comprehend the system of the Church 
 of Borne, or to fit themselves to reach the under- 
 standing of the Roman Catholics. Moreover, he had 
 a very strong impression that, in what Protestants 
 chose to call "argument with Roman Catholics," 
 they generally preferred imperiously denouncing 
 errors, with " the ascendancy strut," rather than 
 meekly selecting and acknowledging any common 
 truth and turning it to account. 
 
 The gracious spirit that was preparing him for his 
 future labour, led him early to adopt an opposite 
 course. Perhaps the very first time I ever heard 
 his name, but if not, certainly the very first definite 
 recollection I have as associated with it, was hearing 
 a gentleman, who had been educated for the priest- 
 hood, but had left the Church of Rome, contrasting 
 Mr Ouseley with other Protestant preachers, and 
 saying what an effect he had seen him produce in a 
 crowd, when, in their own tongue, and with a heart 
 overflowing with love, he entreated them to turn from 
 their sins, " for the sake of the Son of the Virgin." 
 
 He would often begin by talking about the Virgin 
 and St Peter. " The Virgin," he would say, " had 
 the best religion in the world." This was enough to 
 fix attention and conciliate feeling. Then he would 
 say how Peter too had the true religion, and what 
 Peter's religion was. He would go on to tell how 
 both Mary and Peter had learned it all from the one 
 perfect Teacher, and how they owed everything that 
 they had to simply obeying and listening to Him. 
 He would also show that they taught us to render to 
 Jesus just the same absolute obedience and implicit
 
 74 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 trust. Thus, in the name of Peter and of Mary, he 
 preached the glory of Jesus alone. 
 
 Mr Bonsall quotes, as one of his sayings, that in 
 regard to the Roman Catholics as well as others, the 
 order of Christ had been reversed. He said, " Behold, 
 I make you fishers of men." " Now," said Mr Ouseley, 
 "fishermen seek after the fish; but we find those 
 who are called fishers of men waiting for the fish to 
 seek after them." Mr Bonsall, in noting the fact 
 that his uncle's usual plan was carefully to seize 
 upon common grounds of truth in dealing with 
 Roman Catholics, makes the remark, that with 
 priests or men of education he acted differently, at 
 once impugning their system, and exhibiting its 
 antagonism to the truth revealed in Scripture. This 
 is probably to some extent correct, but it will prove, 
 as we go on, that with them also he was very care- 
 ful so to allege and to reason out of the Scriptures, 
 that he rather made personal friends of his opponents 
 than otherwise. 
 
 During his residence in Sligo the Rebellion came 
 to a crisis. North and South were in a flame. The 
 chronic tidings of broils and murders were now 
 exchanged for news of battles here and there. 
 Wherever the Roman Catholics gained a temporary 
 advantage, horrid butcheries were perpetrated on the 
 Protestants. Yet, in the midst of all this, he would 
 hear that the Methodist preachers were enabled to 
 hold on their course, traversing the most disturbed 
 districts, and, though sometimes seized and doomed 
 to death, in the end escaping, as if an invisible cover 
 turned danger from their heads. Suddenly a French 
 force lauded iii the neighbouring county of Mayo, at
 
 LABOURS IN BALLY MOTE AND SLIGO. 75 
 
 Killala, and marched through wild mountain passes 
 straight upon Castlebar, where a considerable division 
 of the English army was drawn up to meet them. 
 It broke and disgracefully ran, the shame of the day 
 being redeemed only by the bravery of some High- 
 landers, and that of a small detachment of the 
 Leicestershire Regiment, commanded by Gideon's 
 younger brother, Ealph, then only a lieutenant.* 
 
 * In the " Gentleman's Magazine," volume Ixix. page 18, under date 
 of September 1800, we have the following letter : " MR URBAN, I have 
 seen your genealogical account of the Ouseley family, many of whom, 
 it appears, have served in the army. May I then beg permission to 
 furnish you with a memoir of an officer of that name, 
 
 " ' Whose tiger brow, 
 Though charged with death, smiled mercy on distress.' 
 
 " In August 1798, when the French under Humbert invaded Ireland, 
 Lieutenant Ouseley commanded a detachment of the Leicester Fen- 
 cibles in the action at Castlebar, which his example inspired with such 
 firmness and intrepidity, that while the army right and left a few- 
 Highlanders excepted shamefully gave way, not a man of his evinced 
 the slightest disposition of timidity. However, after a bloody resist- 
 ance, a superior force broke his little phalanx, most of whom were in- 
 stantly killed or made prisoners. Thus situated, he rushed into the 
 midst of the enemy, crying out to the remainder of his party (Prince 
 of Wales's), ' To the bayonet, boys ; to the bayonet ! ' and at the same 
 time laying about him with such rapidity and success, that he cut his 
 way quite through the enemy's ranks. But in getting over a fence he 
 was made prisoner. Then, after a few minutes' respiration, he disen- 
 gaged himself by a coup de desespoir, and came off, though covered over 
 with sweat and blood, with very little injury Lupus fuit canibus et 
 ccesim cursimque evasit holding in one hand a bayonet, and in the other 
 a reeking scyrnitar, with which to my knowledge he inflicted many a 
 deadly wound. 
 
 "This soldier (to whom I am still unknown), though the enemy was 
 close on his rear, afforded me all the assistance he could. On approach- 
 ing where I sat bleeding on the ground (whence I could distinctly hear 
 or see most of the transaction), he raised me up; and while he was in 
 the friendly act of helping me over the wall (being unable to render 
 myself the least assistance), the enemy forced him from his kindly 
 office, three of whom however he laid by me wounded mortally.
 
 76 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Sligo was not captured by the rebels. The French 
 marched upon it ; but one regiment, the Limerick 
 Militia, boldly advancing to Colooney, faced them 
 with determination, so that their General, thinking 
 this small body must be the van of a large force, 
 changed his line of march. 
 
 In the meantime, Mr Ouseley was traversing this 
 part of the country, and was often stopped by the 
 rebel bands. He fearlessly told them his gospel 
 message, and never failed to point out their own 
 errors. He knew, as well as any man did, when he 
 was in danger, and he had no liking for it; but 
 whenever it was a question of avoiding it or leaving 
 his blessed work undone, he never thought twice ; 
 when he found himself in the midst of danger, he 
 believed that the best way out of it was by outspoken 
 candour. 
 
 There is a story of Ealph about this time, which I 
 have often heard repeated, and of which a version is 
 before me from the Rev. Graham Campbell. Mr 
 Ouseley's own papers do not make any mention of it ; 
 but that must be taken to be of no weight what- 
 ever ; for, excepting in letters which passed between 
 themselves, I find hardly an allusion to his brother, 
 and of the letters, only those have been preserved 
 which were written when both were old men. 
 
 The tale is, that one day at a mess-table, an officer 
 
 "Mr Urban, I was in misery, and be helped me To whom, then, 
 Khali I declare the humanity of this son of Mars but to you ; or 
 through whom can I convey my high sense of gratitude to him so well 
 ;is you, who are the eye, the ear, and the tongue, of the world. 
 
 " If this youth is of the family above mentioned, verc in illo virtus 
 emicat majorum. I have been a loyal volunteer, and am now your 
 humble servant, W. H. JOHNSTON."
 
 LABOURS IN BALLYMOTE AND SLIGO. 77 
 
 amused himself by turning into ridicule the fellow 
 he had seen preaching in the streets. Lieutenant 
 Ouseley, presenting his card, said, " The person you 
 are ridiculing is my brother. Meet me in the morn- 
 ing." They did meet, and Ralph received the fire of 
 his antagonist twice without drawing his trigger. 
 Then he called upon him to apologise. The seconds 
 told him to do so. When it was done, Ralph said, 
 " It is well you did it, or you would have been as 
 dead as that ! " aiming at a dog and putting the 
 bullet through him, which, it is said, he never failed 
 to do with anything he did aim at. 
 
 If the man of the world could so risk his life at 
 the call of a conventional law of honour, how much 
 more would Gideon feel that he should not count his 
 life dear to him if he might fulfil the ministry of 
 blessing which his Lord had committed to his charge !
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FORMAL CALL INTO THE MISSION-FIELD. 
 
 THE residence of Mr Ouseley in Sligo introduced him 
 to William Hamilton, then Superintendent of the 
 Circuit, a man in the history of Methodism in Ireland 
 who left his memory deeply impressed, as a very dis- 
 tinct mark, on the minds of all that knew him. In- 
 curably droll, yet high-minded and warm of heart, 
 he was constantly making people smile at his fancies, 
 and often shocked those who had any culture by the 
 roughness of his speech. But he never failed to gain 
 and to hold a high place in their esteem, as one who 
 served God and his generation with no wavering mind. 
 It is evident, also, that he acquired that kind of in- 
 tellectual ascendancy which comes by making men 
 hear things which they can never forget, and making 
 them see things in a light in which they never saw 
 them before. 
 
 In Sligo, also, Mr Ouseley would often hear of a 
 name which probably would be known to him before 
 he left Dunmore, but which would certainly be on 
 the lips of every Methodist in and about Sligo, for 
 the man was born there. This was Charles Graham, 
 the first and greatest of his colleagues. A few 
 years previously, in the town of Sligo, Dr Coke,
 
 FORMAL CALL INTO THE MISSION-FIELD. 79 
 
 whose soul burned to make missionaries, had asked 
 Graham, then a farmer, and remarkably useful as a 
 local preacher, if he could not preach in Irish. He 
 replied, " No." The Doctor rather reproachfully 
 remarked that "he could speak it." Graham said, 
 " Yes," but asked if every good man who could talk 
 English was capable of preaching in it. The Doctor 
 was silenced, but Graham was set on fire. 
 
 He went to work, and soon had a sermon ready in 
 Irish. The success of it was great. He shortly came 
 into fellowship with Bartley Campbell, the Lough 
 Derg Pilgrim, as he w.as called, one of those pic- 
 turesque monuments of grace which are raised up in 
 all great revivals. Bartley had actually found peace 
 with God through faith in Christ while going 
 through the most miserable superstitions of a 
 <{ Station " to Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg. 
 These two together coursed the country, and by their 
 labours the Lord lighted a great flame. The Irish 
 Conference sent Charles Graham to the South, and 
 the work which was wrought by his instrumentality 
 there has been told by his grand-nephew, the Rev. 
 Graham Campbell, in the "Apostle of Kerry." 
 
 In one place Mr Ouseley would hear that " this is 
 where the wake was held where Charles Graham 
 and other wicked youths were beginning their old 
 pranks when a local preacher, a relation of the 
 deceased, checked them." " Perhaps," said they, re- 
 senting the interference of the Methodist, " we shall 
 get to heaven as soon as yourself." (t Perhaps you 
 may," was the reply, "but unless you live the life 
 of the righteous, your hope of heaven will be as 
 vain as that of Balaam, who said, ' Let me die the
 
 So LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 death of the righteous, and let my last end be like 
 his;' but alas! how did he die?" Graham went 
 home offended, but determined to find out all about 
 Balaam, and so he searched his Bible with that 
 view. He discovered that Balaam " loved the wages 
 of unrighteousness," and that he was found among 
 the slain after the battle. This was the beginning 
 of the great change in him. 
 
 At another place Mr Ouseley would have many 
 to remind him that this was where the priest sent 
 for Charles Graham, and said, " Mr Graham, I have 
 sent for you, because I pity you, to be spending your 
 time in striving to pervert my people ; and you know 
 that ours is the true Church, and out of the Church 
 of Rome there is no salvation." 
 
 " I know no such thing," said Mr Graham ; " for if 
 you can show me one in your parish who is not in 
 the way to hell, I will join your Church at once." 
 
 11 On the way to hell ! " said the priest. 
 
 " Yes," said Graham. 
 
 " Do you mean to say that my father is on the 
 way to hell ? How can you make use of such expres- 
 sions? " 
 
 " I ask you, sir, is sin the way to hell ? " 
 
 The priest said, "Yes." 
 
 " Well, then," said Graham, "I do not know one 
 in your parish who is not committing sin from day 
 to day." 
 
 Before they parted, Graham took his turn at re- 
 proof. " I fear, sir, that God never sent you to 
 preach the gospel ; for had He done so, you would 
 profit the people." 
 
 Almost everywhere Mr Ouseley would hear of the
 
 FORMAL CALL INTO THE MISSION-FIELD. 81 
 
 labours of Charles Graham ; many a spiritual child 
 of his telling a tale which would prepare his heart 
 to rejoice, the day he learned that he was to be 
 Graham's yoke-fellow. Even forty years later than 
 the time when Mr Ouseley was traversing this 
 ground, no one could go among the Methodist 
 Societies scattered over it without hearing much 
 to confirm the words of Graham's own journal : 
 " Wherever I came, the people had little rest, for I 
 was either preaching, praying, or praising God con- 
 tinually." 
 
 At the meeting of the Irish Conference following 
 the Rebellion, Dr Coke, who presided, insisted upon 
 the formation of a general mission directed to the 
 Irish- speaking population. Many feared that it 
 would not succeed, and above all, that pecuniary 
 means could never be found ; but the Doctor pledged 
 himself upon the latter point, and the measure was 
 decided on. A good deal has been said in praise of 
 the wisdom of choosing such a time for the com- 
 mencement of this effort. The fact, however, is, that 
 the crisis made its own appeal; and as to human 
 wisdom in selecting the agents, we need not say any- 
 thing about it. James M'Quigg and Charles Graham, 
 standing above all the Conference as Irish speakers, 
 were designated beforehand by the finger of Provi- 
 dence. Before the arrangements were completed, it 
 was felt to be desirable that a third should be asso- 
 ciated with those two, respecting whose qualifications 
 all were agreed, and the other must be one who was 
 master of the Irish tongue. Here William Hamilton 
 came in, and named Gideon Ouseley. He never had 
 oifered himself as a candidate, had not passed any 
 
 F
 
 82 LIFE OF GIDEON USE LEY. 
 
 examination or district-meeting; and so independent 
 and spontaneous had been his labours, that no one 
 was entitled to say that he would really work in har- 
 ness. But Hamilton and very many others knew him, 
 and all felt that, in his spirit, and gifts, and fruit, he 
 had a kind of credential rising far above what boards 
 of examination could have given. He was at once 
 designated as a colleague of Mr Graham, without, 
 however, being formally accepted as a regular proba- 
 tioner ; and a note was placed on the Minutes indi- 
 cating that he was only tentatively employed. The 
 tidings of this decision were a great joy to him. As 
 to what relation to the Conference he might hold, or 
 what pecuniary arrangements were involved, he cared 
 nothing. All he saw was an open door set before 
 him to go and preach the glad tidings of his blessed 
 Master far and near. He said, " When I received 
 from Mr John Kerr, Secretary of the Conference, a 
 letter inviting me to go forth as a missionary with 
 good Charles Graham, I was amazed, as I had no 
 thought or expectation of such an occurrence. I 
 accepted the invitation gladly as from the Lord, and 
 thus was received, without the recommendation of 
 any district-meeting or examination as to my doc- 
 trinal views; and without hesitation, I unreservedly 
 rendered myself, my life, my all, to the Lord, to 
 labour as He should help me." 
 
 Brave old "William Hamilton all his lifelong 
 dwelt with delight on the deed of that day. He 
 survived long enough to hear that Gideon Ouseley 
 had closed his earthly course; and then, though 
 nearly fourscore, wrote a letter to the beloved widow 
 of his beloved friend, which is so characteristic, that,
 
 FORMAL CALL INTO THE MISSION-FIELD. 83 
 
 although many passages of it anticipate the future of 
 our history, we shall give it here at large, rather 
 than break it into pieces to appear in proper chrono- 
 logical order : 
 
 " MY DEAR SISTER OUSELEY, I heard of Mr 
 Ouseley's death : I felt it to the quick, and said, 
 ' Who next shall be summoned away ? My merciful 
 God, is it I ? May my last end be like his ! ' His 
 work was done, and he had nothing to do but die ; 
 and now he is where all the ship's company meet. My 
 heart has gone much after him since I heard of his 
 departure, and I think I will soon be with him. 
 
 " Few knew him better or loved him more than I 
 did. He came to me in Sligo shortly after his con- 
 version, and settled there for a little time as a teacher. 
 I saw his soul was burning with love to God and 
 zeal for the conversion of the world. He seemed to 
 want room to work for God, and on the market-days 
 would go through the crowd crying to all, ' Turn ye, 
 turn ye, for why will ye die ? ' He had but crude 
 notions of the gospel plan of salvation when he came 
 to Sligo, having had no fellowship with godly people 
 in his own neighbourhood. But he was an apt 
 scholar, and soon learned the way of the Lord more 
 perfectly ; and what he learned he told to others in 
 love, and pressed them all to come to the Lamb of 
 God that taketh away the sin of the world. He had 
 been a wild young man, like Colonel Gardiner, and 
 like him he could sing 
 
 " ' The world beheld the glorious change, 
 
 And did Thy hand confess ; 
 My tongue broke out in unknown strains, 
 And sang surprising grace.
 
 84 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Great is the work, my neighbours cried, 
 
 And owned the power divine ; 
 Great is the work, my heart replied, 
 
 And be the glory Thine.' 
 
 " I believe his conversion was occasioned by reading 
 that good book, Dr Young's l Night Thoughts,' for 
 God has made it a blessing to many. While he 
 remained in Sligo, I observed him closely, and saw 
 there was something in him beyond what is common 
 to young converts, and that God intended him for 
 public usefulness ; and at the next Conference 
 which I attended, in Dublin, there was one wanted 
 to join Mr Graham as an Irish missionary. I saw 
 the opening was of God, and I had the pleasure of 
 recommending my dear Brother Ouseley to fill that 
 department of God's work, which he has done for a 
 long time, without spot or wrinkle, or any such 
 thing, to the glory of God, to his own credit, and to 
 the profit of very many, to my knowledge. 
 
 " I believe he was never so delighted with any 
 earthly thing as with my letter from the Conference, 
 telling him that he was appointed to travel the king- 
 dom with that man of God, and preach the gospel 
 to every creature ; and surely he did the work of an 
 evangelist most faithfully to the end. I did not see 
 him for some years after he went out (except when 
 he touched on my Circuit from time to time), 
 until God sent the missionary spirit on myself, one 
 Sunday as I rode between Castleblaney and Keady. 
 I then got a black cap, and ran out into the market- 
 places, crying aloud, * Come all of you here, come 
 all of you here ! ' and soon after this I was joined 
 with Mr Ouseley, for Mr Graham was called to his
 
 FORMAL CALL INTO THE MISSION-FIELD. 85 
 
 reward, and we were many years together throughout 
 Ireland, and a true yoke-fellow he was. 
 
 " His Irish tongue was of great use in every place, 
 and many of the Papists were enlightened and turned 
 to the Lord, some of whom are now preaching the 
 gospel, and others gone to glory. But the devil, 
 seeing his kingdom shaking, often stirred the baser 
 sort to oppose and raise disturbance. One time, 
 preaching in the street in Granard, an old man with 
 a grey head gathered up his handful of the dirt in 
 the street and threw it over the crowd right into Mr 
 Ouseley's face. When he got his mouth cleaned he 
 cried out, 'Now, boys, did I deserve that?' 'No, 
 no ! ' was the cry from all sides ; and shortly after the 
 same fellow came again and attempted the same thing; 
 but the people fell upon him, and you would think 
 they were trying to kick twenty devils out of him. 
 
 " At Portumna we were more in danger than in 
 any other place by the priests and their people. 
 They lay in wait in the road in a lonely place, and 
 rose up out of the ditches like a swarm of bees on 
 all sides, and pulling out their sticks, cried, 'Deliver! ' 
 I forced my way through them by help of the spurs ; 
 but they beat him greatly, and he lost his hat in the 
 fray, and had to travel many miles without it on 
 Christmas Eve. 
 
 " We were in Con naught in the time of the Rebel- 
 lion, and they took the shoes off his horse at night 
 to make pikes, and cut all the hair off my horse's 
 mane and tail, and one ear off his head. But in 
 Ennistimon we had bloodshed and battery, and 
 narrowly escaped with our lives. The soldiers were 
 our friends in all places. He was always in the front
 
 86 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 of the battle, and often in more danger than I was. 
 The devil and his people seemed to hate him most of 
 all ; but many a human devil was seen after us both 
 in almost every place. He feared nothing, so that he 
 might finish the work his Master had given him to do; 
 for he was no eye-servant, and needed no driving, and 
 it was not easy to keep up with him. I never saw 
 his like, and never shall until I see him in glory. 
 
 11 He was a strong man, and put forth all his might 
 in the Master's work. I believe the Master always 
 said, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant.' 
 He wrote hardly any while I was with him ; but 
 when I was worn-out and sat down, he then took 
 some time to the pen, and wrote a great deal ; and I 
 think his little works will circulate everywhere with 
 good effect, and be a blessing to the rising genera- 
 tion in saving them from the errors of Popery. 
 Children yet unborn shall read with delight and 
 profit what he has left behind him for the edification 
 of the sons of the mother-Church ; for he seemed to 
 be raised chiefly for their good; and now he rests 
 from his labours, and his works do follow him. 
 
 " Farewell, then, man of God 1 I loved you much, 
 and you loved William Hamilton ; and while I think 
 of our fellowship here below, I weep and sing 
 
 " * Happy soul, thy days are ended, 
 All thy suffering days below ; 
 Go, by angel guards attended, 
 To the sight of Jesus go.' 
 
 And you will wait my arrival, and hail me on the 
 shore. God bless her who is left behind, and prepare 
 her to be numbered with the saints in glory ever- 
 lasting ! "
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OPENING OF HIS CAREER AS A MISSIONARY. 
 
 AT the time of their appointment together as 
 missionaries specially to the Irish-speaking popula- 
 tion, Mr Graham was forty-nine years of age, and 
 Ouseley thirty-six the one a veteran, and the other 
 a well-practised volunteer. Instead of the senior 
 directing his junior to join him at some point in 
 their intended field of labour, Graham came to Sligo 
 to meet his colleague. This was very probably due 
 to the fact, that he thought Sligo would be the best 
 point for his family to reside in, during the frequent 
 terms of absence which he had in prospect, for it was 
 not far from his native place. For a week or two 
 subsequent to the Conference, Ouseley does not appear 
 to have joined Mr Graham, and the journal of the 
 latter states that he had to settle his temporal affairs. 
 It may be possible that he had to go to Dunmore, 
 for, had he been in Sligo, it is all but certain that 
 he would have been found side by side with Mr 
 Graham in preaching in the streets. 
 
 The latter had opened his commission even before 
 he reached the town. His last station had been at 
 Longford, and on returning thither from the Confer- 
 ence, he heard that a man was lying in prison, just
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 about to be executed. Hastening to his cell, he 
 fuund a priest with him, " saying prayers out of a 
 book." He continues, " I knelt down, and said 
 Amen to every good petition, but was silent when 
 he prayed to saints and angels." When the priest 
 had concluded his offices, Graham began to speak to 
 the prisoner, earnestly directing him to the Lamb of 
 God which taketh away the sin of the world. The 
 priest said, " You should not have interfered; " but 
 Graham quietly replied, " My dear sir, do not be 
 displeased ; every one should be willing to assist the 
 dying;" and then, in the Irish tongue, he spoke to 
 the prisoner of the Lord who had bought him and 
 would forgive him. The poor man showed such 
 interest and emotion that Graham was soon upon 
 his knees, pouring out in the mother-tongue of the 
 culprit an imploring cry for the salvation of his 
 soul, for his conversion even then, at the eleventh 
 hour. " The man cried aloud for mercy. I again 
 directed him to Calvary, and he calmed down to peace 
 of mind. The priest was confounded, but could not 
 oppose." Mr Graham then expresses his strong hope 
 with regard to the poor man, who " went to the drop 
 with a firm step." 
 
 It may naturally occur to many that, in the 
 present day, no priest would tolerate such an intru- 
 sion ; but, at the time of which we are speaking, 
 their position made them less imperious. The 
 Rebellion had only just been crushed, and so many 
 of their number had been openly involved in it, 
 whilst so few had entirely escaped suspicion of com- 
 plicity, that in the presence of men of well-known 
 loyalty they were somewhat timid. This perhaps
 
 OPENING OF MISSIONARY CAREER. 89 
 
 accounts for many features in the early history of the 
 Irish Methodist Missions, which appear marvellous 
 by modern light. 
 
 Fresh from this scene, Graham " took the street" 
 the next day, and there preached in English and 
 Irish, amid tears, whilst some smote their breasts, 
 others went down upon their knees, and some even 
 kissed the ground. On his way to Sligo, he con- 
 versed in Irish with the people whom he met along 
 the road ; and one of these fell upon his knees and 
 cried aloud to God for mercy to his soul. 
 
 With all his apparent fearlessness, it is manifest 
 that Graham had an inward struggle with himself 
 before he could muster courage to stand up in the 
 streets of Sligo. It was almost his native place, and 
 was, besides, a considerable town. But he took his 
 stand at the corner of two streets, where he could 
 command " both Church and Mass people." Soou 
 he was surrounded by a gazing multitude. His open, 
 manly bearing, and soft, musical, but commanding 
 voice, secured a hearing. The Irish flowing from 
 that voice is said to have been strangely sweet, hav- 
 ing an effect in the enunciation hardly ever recog- 
 nised in any other speaker. In either of the two 
 tongues spoken by him, his flow of words was over- 
 whelming that sort of speech which critics would 
 never call pulpit-eloquence, but which Christians 
 would always recognise as having evangelistic power. 
 After a week of village preaching, Graham was once 
 more in the streets on the following Sunday, but we 
 do not yet find Ouseley with him. Some " son of 
 Belial " led up a pig by the ear, until its shrill voice 
 competed with his ; then a soldier came forward and
 
 90 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 began to bark like a dog ; when he had been removed, 
 an oyster-man lifted up his voice and shouted " Shell- 
 wares ! " But the evangelist had resources they 
 knew not of to fall back upon. Waiting and per- 
 severing, he overcame all, and finally pealed forth 
 the truths of eternal solemnity in thunder " that 
 bore down all before it." 
 
 It is only on Saturday evening, August 11, 1799, 
 that we first catch sight of the two yoke-fellows 
 together, riding into Biverstown, a little place about 
 ten miles from Sligo, where the early labours of 
 Graham had been made a blessing to many, and 
 where, in subsequent times, the word of God has 
 often been very fruitful. Saturday evening as it 
 was, Graham gathered a congregation and preached, 
 and afterwards met the Society. The priest, sus- 
 pecting that the preachers might aim at his own 
 flock, took good care to warn them well on the 
 Sunday morning, and made preparation to give the 
 intruders a warm reception. But no sooner were 
 his people out of mass than a well-mounted man of 
 middle height and powerful frame, with his right 
 eye closed and a black cap on, was in the midst of 
 the people sitting upon his horse, filling their ears 
 with the sounds, not of the priest's Latin or of 
 heretic English, but of the sweet orthodox speech of 
 the cabin fireside. Before the priest and his friends 
 had succeeded in carrying out their plan of attack, 
 Mr Graham came up with a number of friends to 
 strengthen and protect Ouseley. The attention of 
 the people had been so instantly and completely 
 gained, that all the priest attempted to do was to 
 draw them away ; but for an hour and a half they
 
 OPENING OF MISSIONARY CAREER. 91 
 
 listened to the alternate addresses of the two 
 evangelists, sometimes exclaiming, " It is the truth." 
 Of course, the senior missionary, besides watching 
 the people, was taking note of his junior colleague, 
 and his record is, " Mr Ouseley is, I think, one of 
 the best Irish preachers I ever heard." 
 
 Gideon Ouseley had now all that his heart longed 
 for, so far as sphere and opportunities are concerned, 
 which, of course, made it long only the more after 
 the fruit to which they were but the means. Free 
 from every call but that of the inward Voice, which 
 said, " Preach all the words of this Life ; " with a 
 leader who fulfilled his ideal of an evangelist, and 
 with the whole country before them to go where and 
 how the finger of Providence might appear to point ; 
 with next to no money, and plenty of air; every 
 fibre of his powerful frame seemed instinct with love 
 and joy. There were sick souls in the land, and he 
 had a commission to proclaim the great cure. There 
 was plenty of poverty, and he knew where all the 
 people might find unsearchable riches ; and survey- 
 ing the desolation before him and the resources above 
 him, he moved forward with the double inspiration of 
 a loud call and unlimited support. 
 
 The united labours commenced at Rlverstown 
 were continued for six years, during which the two 
 brethren rode and preached, and often slept together, 
 as if one spirit animated both their bodies. They 
 were too busy to write in detail. The descriptions 
 contained in their letters are general ones. For 
 particulars of the earliest months of their course, we 
 often draw upon Mr Campbell's Life of Graham. 
 Many men have held a career watched with in-
 
 92 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 terest by the great world, whose reputations are 
 already dead, and whose works never had life in them, 
 while the names of Graham and Ouseley are dear to 
 numbers of the happiest families in every country 
 whither the people of Ireland have been scattered, 
 and the memory of their work, if not now so glowing 
 as among their contemporaries, is becoming more 
 comprehensive and elevated every year. 
 
 They soon began to be heard of in England through 
 Dr Coke, who published extracts of their letters 
 addressed to himself; but this was slow compared 
 with the speed wherewith their fame travelled in 
 Ireland. Their appearance in fairs, markets, and 
 patrons ; their preaching on horseback ; their wonder- 
 ful Irish ; their courage, love, and mysterious power 
 over conscience; and especially the unheard-of 
 changes in heart and life wrought through their 
 preaching, became the theme of common conversation, 
 so that, swiftly as they travelled, they almost every- 
 where found some prepared by report to welcome, 
 and some to oppose them. 
 
 Shortly after leaving Biverstown, they met 
 groups of peasants, coming away from a holy well, 
 where they had been attending the " Patron ; " that 
 is, the anniversary feast of the patron saint. Who 
 the saint was, and where the well stands, we are not 
 informed. In a climate so humid as that of the 
 west and south of Ireland, it hardly seems natural 
 that wells should be objects of devotion, and the 
 large number of holy wells which exist there seems 
 a confirmation of the traditions which trace the 
 early religion of those shores to an Oriental origin. 
 Wells were worth much in Phoenicia or Carthage; and
 
 OPENING OF MISSIONARY CAREER. 93 
 
 if the priests who developed into Druids came thence, 
 probably they would carry well-worship with them 
 as part of their ceremonial. With superstitions of 
 that sort the friars have always made their peace, 
 aud preferred turning them to gain rather than 
 turning the people from them. 
 
 As the shoeless creatures, who had been praying 
 and making offerings, perhaps for the forgiveness of 
 sins, perhaps for the recovery of a sick cow, 
 straggled in little groups along the road, they would 
 expect to exchange a courteous, " God save your 
 honour ! " with the gentlemen on horseback ; but 
 were probably surprised when the horses were reined 
 up, and " broadcloth " began to talk to " frieze " in 
 the kindliest tones and in the best Irish. They did 
 not suspect heresy in that tongue ; indeed, probably, 
 they believed that Satan himself could never speak 
 it. Therefore their ears were open. They were 
 told of One who loved the like of them so much that 
 He came from heaven to seek them, and that He 
 would forgive all their iniquities and heal all their 
 diseases. 
 
 They fell on their knees, smote their breasts, and 
 with uplifted hands and streaming eyes called upon 
 God. One cried out, " What must I do ? " " They 
 would almost adore us," says Graham ; " we had 
 hard work to prevent them from kissing our feet." 
 The missionaries prayed in the midst of them, and 
 then proceeded towards the well. A hoary-headed 
 man ran before them, and called upon the people to 
 come and listen to the gospel. They gathered around, 
 Graham preached, and all the while he was doing so 
 a woman knelt down behind him, as did also the
 
 94 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 old man, and both cried piteously. The next Lord's 
 day found them in the county of Leitrim, at 
 Mauorhamilton. On the Saturday evening, the 
 priest went to the magistrate, who was also rector, 
 representing that these men were come to the town 
 to turn him out of his chapel. " If that be so," 
 said the sagacious justice, " they will put me out 
 of my church ; and so I will order them to be taken 
 up." Graham, however, sent two friends to inform 
 his worship that they were not quite so bad. He 
 says, "I preached in the morning, and met the class, 
 which was like the opening of heaven," something 
 better than turning men out of church or chapel. 
 In the streets they were gladly listened to, and 
 Graham called it, " a good day, from morning to 
 night." Three days after we find them in a church- 
 yard preaching to an attentive crowd. In the same 
 evening Graham writes, " Mr Ouseley was assailed 
 by a poor conceited sinner, but he was soon foiled. 
 He then tried to prevent the people from hearing, 
 but in vain. The poor creatures flocked to hear us, 
 and entreated us to return. They were nearly all 
 Romanists. " A couple of days later, we find them 
 assailed in some country place by what Graham calls 
 a blaspheming Rabshakeh, who would fain have laid 
 hands on them, and " told Mr Ouseley that, if he 
 had a book, he would swear that there was neither 
 God nor devil, heaven nor hell." After another few- 
 days, we find them back again in Sligo, where 
 Ouseley is preaching to the fishwomen in the streets ; 
 and his comrade says, " I came forward to assist 
 him, and was -now delivered from that cursed shame 
 which has long pursued me." Quaintly enough he
 
 OPENING OF MISSIONARY CAREER. 95 
 
 remarks, " Persecution never intimidates me, but 
 fear sometimes does." On the Sunday they took 
 their stand by the old market-house, and they 
 believed that many were then truly touched by the 
 power of the Spirit. One gentleman, who lived 
 opposite, came and begged them to make his house 
 their home. On a succeeding Sunday, Graham says 
 Ouseley stood at the market-place, and he accom- 
 panied him. The priests had resolved to make an 
 end of the "black caps.." While Graham spoke the 
 immense crowd stood still, but when Ouseley began 
 it was the signal for a general shout. They tied 
 kettles to the tails of dogs, and drove them among 
 the crowd. For the moment Ouseley was silenced, 
 but rising above the din, the clear notes of Graham 
 rang out in articulate thunder, " It is all in vain for 
 the sons of Belial to endeavour by means like this 
 to uphold the devil's kingdom, for the Lord Jesus 
 has resolved on its ruin, and down it must come." 
 The eyes and ears of the people were once more with 
 the missionaries, who, in spite of a few disturbers, 
 were allowed to proceed, and even to conclude the 
 service by praying with the people in peace, and dis- 
 missing them with the benediction. All this time 
 meetings in the chapels and in private houses showed 
 that in the services out of doors many, both Protes- 
 tants and Roman Catholics, had received impressions 
 too deep to be concealed. Members were daily added 
 to the societies. 
 
 One day, in a churchyard, as the Roman 
 Catholics, according to the custom of the country, 
 were lying or kneeling on the graves of deceased 
 relatives, wailing with the conventional yet bitter
 
 96 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 cry, Ouseley knelt down among them, and began to 
 pour forth in Irish a fervent prayer for eternal life ; 
 not as if reclaiming against an inexorable fate, but 
 as appealing to a near but very loving Father. It 
 is said that the people were affected as if something 
 wonderful was about to come to pass. Both of the 
 preachers addressed them in English and in Irish, 
 and it was believed that the fruit of that day's mes- 
 sage was very great. 
 
 At Boyle, in the county of Roscommon, the mili- 
 tary officers, who generally were friends of the mission- 
 aries, turned violently against them. In those days, 
 long before the establishment of the constabulary, 
 the military were the only guardians of order in pub- 
 lic movements such as theirs. As a rule, they dis- 
 couraged riot and insisted on liberty. In the pre- 
 sent case, however, encouraged by the officers, the 
 mob attacked the missionaries with rotten eggs and 
 other odious missiles. A " Scapularian," proud of 
 his " Order," opened a controversy, but he soon 
 called Graham the old devil, and Ouseley the young 
 devil. Here also the clergymen of the Established 
 Church joined in the general opposition. 
 
 Like John Wesley himself, Ouseley found, as his 
 course went on, that such opposition from clergymen 
 became less frequent ; and whenever he met with one, 
 as eventually he very often did, willing to countenance 
 evangelistic work in any form, he greatly rejoiced. 
 His own words as to his feelings in his earliest 
 years of labour are : " The grace of God saved me 
 from a sectarian spirit. I loved other Churches, not 
 heeding peculiarities with which I could not agree, and 
 availed myself of every opportunity of conversing with
 
 OPENING OF MISSIONARY CAREER. 97 
 
 persons belonging to them, on topics tending to our 
 mutual profit ; but I loved Methodists with a special 
 love, as through their instrumentality I was brought 
 to know Christ as my Saviour." 
 
 During the autumn of 1799, we find Graham say- 
 ing, in a letter to his son, " We do more in spreading 
 truth in one fair or market day than we do in weeks 
 or months in private places. In some markets, the 
 cries and tears and groans of the people are enough 
 to rend the heavens. The Lord is with us, indeed." 
 From a letter of his to Dr Coke, we find that they 
 soon passed over the whole breadth of the kingdom, 
 and touched the east coast. He tells how at Bal- 
 briggan a Roman Catholic woman came to them while 
 they were at breakfast, and they at once began 
 preaching to her the good tidings of the kingdom of 
 God. " The power of God fell on her and on us ; 
 and we immediately left our breakfast and went to 
 prayer." At Drogheda, after preaching in the street, 
 they were summoned before the magistrate, said by 
 Mr Bonsall to have been Mr Ralph Smyth, the 
 Mayor. He gave them leave to preach in the Tholsel, 
 or Town Hall. He, the Sheriff, and some of the 
 clergymen attended. The crowd was immense, and 
 the Roman Catholics seemed deeply affected. The 
 Mayor said that they might preach wherever they 
 pleased. Mr Sillery, who had been mayor the year pre- 
 ceding, became their friend, and a son of his joined the 
 Methodist Society. The latter gentleman afterwards 
 entered the Church of England, and became Chaplain 
 to St Stephen's Hospital in Dublin. He was a 
 faithful minister of Christ throughout life, always 
 remained affectionate]} 7 attached to Mr Ouseley, and
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 often attended Methodist chapels. In fact, he con- 
 tinued to meet in class a good while after his ordi- 
 nation. 
 
 Graham traces their way to Ardee, then to the 
 Poles, when he says, " Heaven, indeed, was opened 
 unto us." Next they appear in Kingscourt, and 
 preach in the market-house to a vast number of 
 Catholics, who, he says, " were wonderfully affected." 
 He was so encouraged by the effect of distributing 
 " pamphlets," that he wished they had thousands to 
 give away. Entering Bailieborough, they found it 
 was market-day, and the rain was falling. Hoisting 
 their umbrellas, they rode straight into the midst of 
 the throng, and from the saddle began at once to 
 tell of the good tidings of great joy. He says that 
 the Methodists of the town wished them out of the 
 street, but that they had their eyes opened when they 
 saw that the Word of the Lord, like thunder, awakened 
 the crowd. A poor woman, a Roman Catholic, pro- 
 fessed to have found mercy. That night, at the 
 house where they lodged, two Catholics, servant man 
 and maid, were awakened. The next day, they rode 
 fifteen miles in constant rain to the fair at Cavan ; 
 " but we stormed the little towns as we rode along," 
 sounding a brief but loud call to repentance. Reach- 
 ing Cavan " as wet as we could be," they at once 
 went into the midst of the fair. The rain poured 
 down, but " the fear and terror of the Lord fell on 
 the crowd immediately, and the poor creatures stood 
 with their heads uncovered, bathed in tears." The 
 people followed them to Mr Smith's house, and 
 entreated that they would preach at night in the 
 court-house, which they did. On the same day
 
 OPENING OF MISSIONARY CAREER. 99 
 
 they visited the prisoners in the gaol, making, as 
 they say, a day's labour indeed. Best of all, 
 Graham, who used vivid language, but was any- 
 thing but a boaster, says, " I can give you but a 
 faint idea of the power that attended the Word." 
 At Killeshandra, some Methodists who met them 
 were not a little surprised to see them preach on 
 horseback. 
 
 Of the letters sent in the joint names of the two 
 missionaries, the first that we have reason to suppose 
 was written by Mr Ouseley is the following, which 
 Mr Bonsall says is his. It bore date 
 
 " SLIGO, January 6, 1800. 
 
 " REV. AND DEAR SIR, I know you will be glad to 
 hear from us. We spent the last month in Bally- 
 shannon, Enniskillen, and their vicinities. We have 
 preached two market-days and one Sabbath in the 
 street of Bally shannon, to vast congregations, who 
 heard with the greatest attention. We met with no 
 opposition ; the rich and learned seemed astonished, 
 standing at a distance, and hearing us denounce the 
 judgments of heaven against the crimes of a guilty 
 nation. The Roman Catholics attended us from place 
 to place ; nor could any person prevent them from 
 coming out to hear us. The fame of Irish preaching 
 has spread through all the country, as we speak some 
 Irish every night. Numbers of convictions and con- 
 versions took place. I was astonished to find such a 
 -work without opposition or persecution. We have 
 visited and preached in Ballintra (County Donegal) ; 
 but the place we preached in was too small to hold 
 the people. Next morning we prayed from house to
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 house, and the Lord was so powerfully present, that 
 the people were deeply affected, and cried aloud for 
 mercy. From this we proceeded to Pettigo (County 
 Fermanagh), and preached in the street, in what they 
 call their great market. This was a blessed day to 
 many ; some could hardly restrain themselves from 
 crying out in the open market. The Catholics were 
 greatly struck, and followed us that night and next 
 morning to Mr Scott's. We then came on to Balli- 
 namallard and Enniskillen. The power of the Lord 
 attended us, both in public and in private, so that 
 our meetings continued some nights five and six 
 hours, until we were worn out. I can give you but 
 an imperfect account of this work. There were two 
 Catholic girls converted in Sidare, at Mr Arm- 
 strong's ; and last Monday night several souls were 
 brought to God in one house. As soon as we re- 
 cover a little, we shall go to the north again. * 
 Lord our God, strengthen Thy poor servants for this 
 great work ! ' 
 
 In the spring of 1800 they became persuaded 
 that Clones would be a better centre than Sligo, and 
 accordingly prepared to remove. Before their depar- 
 ture Mr Ouseley wished to make a set attack upon 
 the " dire apostasy." Graham says, " We determined 
 to make another trial in the street, although the 
 priests commanded great power in preventing the 
 Catholics from hearing us. Yet, on this occasion, 
 contrary to our expectations, we were attended by a 
 crowd of Catholics, who stood quietly while Brother 
 Ouseley proved to them that they were deceived, and 
 had not the doctrines preached by St Paul in his
 
 OPENING OF MISSIONARY CAREER. 101 
 
 Epistle to the Romans, and that their priests were 
 blind guides, and false prophets, and knaves, and 
 took their money, but did them no good.* I exhorted 
 after him, not minding sects or parties, but begged 
 them at once to turn away their attention from creeds, 
 and from church and chapel walls, and to look to 
 Him, who could alone grant them what they all 
 wanted, real happiness, which could only be found 
 by faith in Christ. They heard with attention, and 
 the power of the Lord attended the Word. The 
 hearts of many were melted." 
 
 On the 1st of May, Graham started for their new 
 destination, leaving Ouseley behind him for a little 
 while. Though as fully occupied as usual during the 
 interval in preaching and travelling, Graham says 
 that he felt " great loneliness." Ouseley, on his part, 
 was found on the Sunday, which occurred during 
 their separation, in the streets of Sligo, preaching 
 with Mr Banks, the Superintendent of the Circuit, 
 beside him. He also soon proceeded northwards. 
 They had not laboured in vain, for many holy lives 
 and happy deaths in and around Sligo, from that 
 day down to the present time, have borne a constant 
 and accumulating testimony to the blessing with 
 which God had crowned their labours. 
 
 It is from the journal of Mr Graham we learn that 
 Ouseley, on his way to Clones, preached at Lisbellaw 
 and Maguire's Bridge. No sooner had he arrived 
 than they set off together to Smithborough. Preach- 
 ing in the evening at Mr Mitchell's, they say there 
 were many Seceders, who, as Graham phrases it, 
 
 * It is not to be concluded that Ouseley used these words, but that 
 what he proved amounted to that.
 
 102 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 had been "preached to death by long harangues." 
 Thence to Monaghan, the people flocking around them. 
 Some seemed stunned, some were bathed in tears ; 
 but a clergyman tried to turn the scene into sport. 
 The people, however, soon changed their counten- 
 ances. When the missionaries left, Roman Catholics 
 ran after them, and cried, " When will you come 
 again?" Graham adds, "All the priests' cursings 
 and threatenings are not sufficient to prevent their 
 attendance." The next day they were at Smith- 
 borough, preaching to a mixed multitude of all 
 denominations. It would seem to have been in the 
 open air, for we are told " the rocks began to rend," 
 and when they went into the house, they could not 
 be heard on account of the loud and bitter wail of 
 distress. Mr Graham quaintly remarks, "I doubt not 
 that we left enough for priests and ministers to do 
 for a while." One of the latter had challenged a 
 Methodist preacher to dispute on the subject of the 
 Decrees, but Graham says, " They have other sub- 
 jects to dispute about now ; a great number have 
 been truly converted to God." And so, day by day, 
 continually in one place or another Newbliss, 
 Ballybay, Clones, Cootehill every considerable place 
 in that region, and many of which the names are 
 unknown to books. At Cootehill the Presbyterian 
 church was granted to them to preach in an early 
 sign of liberal feeling which since then has blessedly 
 increased. About this time we find mention made 
 of a woman who was " struck " in the street. It is 
 added also that her husband was "struck," and some 
 others. These would appear to be cases in which 
 spiritual sorrow of mind was attended by physical
 
 OPENING OF MISSIONARY CAREER. 103 
 
 prostration, such as, in the extensive Revival in Ulster, 
 in 1859, took place on a scale that excited much public 
 attention. As the first twelve months of their labours 
 approached its term, they began to look forward to 
 Conference. They had both sown in tears and 
 reaped in joy, and the final efforts of the year were 
 still attended with blessing. At Belturbet we find 
 " numbers of ladies and gentlemen " mentioned as 
 of their audience, who were astonished to hear the 
 people cry for mercy. It is not said that any of the 
 great ones believed, but that they thought the mis- 
 sionaries would be a great blessing to the "coun- 
 try." Here also a love-feast was held, at which 
 many strangers remained, and not a few conversions 
 took place. We find our evangelists next at Bally- 
 haise, and on the 12th of July again at Clones 
 preaching to a vast number of Orangemen. We do 
 not make out where it was that they laboured on the 
 next Sunday, but they were about to preach in the 
 open air, and a multitude had flocked beforehand 
 into the church. A week previously the clergyman 
 had expressed a wish that the missionaries would 
 come, for his preaching seemed to do the people no 
 good, and he thought he had better give it up ; but 
 now, in his crowded church, a young man either 
 fainted or was " struck." " Take him away," cried 
 the minister, " I will have no irregularity in my 
 church ; and if these strangers are my parishioners, 
 I wonder that I never saw them here before. But 
 if they are following these cavalry preachers, I wish 
 they had remained at home in their own churches. 
 Let no one say that I invited them." 
 
 The " cavalry preachers " were soon on the spot,
 
 104 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 and delivered their message out of doors to some 
 four thousand people.* 
 
 Not long afterwards, in some part of this district, 
 they were invited by a clergyman to preach in his 
 church. In the middle of July they turned their 
 faces to Dublin, to meet the brethren in Con- 
 ference, it being the first time for Ouseley. Glad 
 were they to tell all the blessed things the Lord had 
 wrought under their eyes, as well as to hear of His 
 mercies to others of their fellow-labourers. Of course 
 they preached everywhere on their road. At Cavan 
 we find them assisted by the Rev. George Brown. 
 At Oldcastle, Mr Henry, who became their host, 
 declared " it gave him the greatest happiness to see 
 so many poor ignorant Roman Catholics calling on 
 God for mercy, and so broken down." It is said 
 that some of them would remain on their knees for 
 hours, without apparent weariness. From Oldcastle 
 the missionaries made for Dublin, and there were 
 refreshed in spirit, and caused all their brethren to 
 rejoice by telling how mightily the Word of the Lord 
 grew and prevailed. That year, the Irish Conference 
 reported an increase of more than three thousand 
 members, and the abounding testimony of the 
 brethren whose Circuits had been visited by our two 
 missionaries, showed that no small portion of this 
 good fruit was due, directly or indirectly, to their 
 blessed toil. But the numbers added to the Metho- 
 dist Societies were only the proof, not the sum, of 
 the total good done ; for very many to whom God 
 had made them a blessing never became Methodists, 
 
 * I give the numbers as I find them, not forgetting how greatly 
 over-estimated they generally are in such cases.
 
 OPENING OF MISSIONARY CAREER. 105 
 
 but spread divine life in other branches of the Church. 
 This remark does not apply only to the case of our two 
 missionaries, but also to that of their fellow-labourers 
 generally. One of the tokens in which they have always 
 been accustomed to see the good hand of their Master 
 with them, has been that their success did not mean the 
 barrenness or decay of other branches of the Church. 
 On the contrary, they found, as an almost invariable 
 rule, that wherever the message delivered by them 
 was blessed to the souls of many, other denomina- 
 tions were quickened and became more useful. To 
 Methodists it would not be a sign that they were a 
 branch on the stem, if, when themselves flourishing, 
 there was not a manifest rising of the sap and fat- 
 ness of the root into the neighbouring branches. 
 Rather they would take this as a mark of being a 
 " sect," a cutting separated from the tree and left to 
 grow alone. When they hear themselves called a 
 " sect," schism, heresy, or the like, they may not 
 enjoy it ; but it does not hurt them. They will not 
 be called to give account for the words of other men, 
 but if they began to give such names to those who 
 hold the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism, 
 because they "follow not with us," it would then be 
 their turn to face the accountability.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FURTHER COURSE OF LABOUR IN COMPANY WITH 
 CHARLES GRAHAM. 
 
 WHEN Graham and Ouseley again set their faces 
 toward Clones, their field of labour had been defined 
 by the Conference as the province of Ulster, with 
 the counties of Louth and Meath. So greatly had 
 the results of the General Mission of the year pre- 
 ceding, as carried out by themselves and Mr M'Quigg, 
 encouraged the Conference, that six men were now 
 set apart for this particular kind of evangelistic 
 labour. The south and east, roughly speaking, were 
 assigned to Messrs Kane and Webb, and the central 
 counties to Messrs M'Quigg and Bell. 
 
 On the 1st of August we find Graham and 
 Ouseley in the Tholsel at Drogheda, calling an 
 attentive throng to repentance. Next day they were 
 at Ardee, Graham being ill, and Ouseley at work in 
 the street. At Kingscourt, among many Roman 
 Catholics, one intelligent young man was smitten 
 with such deep conviction of sin that he cried aloud, 
 jind continued so to do. Among other things he said, 
 " I am full of fire." They ceased not to plead in 
 prayer for him till his sorrow was turned to peace, 
 " and oh, his expression of gratitude for ever having
 
 LABOURS WITH CHARLES GRAHAM. 107 
 
 heard those servants of the Lord !" At Shercock 
 they had the Protestant clergyman to hear them. 
 A Roman Catholic shopkeeper said that the man 
 who would pin his faith to the sleeve of any indivi- 
 dual, would deserve to be lost ; and his wife told 
 them that they had heard of them, and had been 
 afraid that they would not come. From place to 
 place they pursued their course, almost everywhere 
 some signs of awakening and conversion following. 
 
 At Kilmore, the scene of the labours of the blessed 
 Bishop Bedell, Graham has the following entry : 
 " The Lord be praised, this country is all on fire. 
 Travelling preachers, local preachers, leaders and 
 hearers, are flaming with zeal for the glory of God." 
 
 Fields that once had been sown with the good seed 
 of the kingdom, are often those where, after a lapse of 
 years, the blades shoot up vigorously when a new 
 spring sets in. This has been proved in different 
 parts of France, when, on the spots where truth had 
 flourished in the days of the Reformation, the efforts 
 of modern evangelisation have proved very fruitful. 
 In both England and Scotland, also, it has some- 
 times been found that where one great Revival had 
 occurred, subsequent ones took place. The work of 
 Bishop Bedell was of the kind that never dies. The 
 friend of Diodati, who enriched the Italian language 
 with a good version of the Word of God, though for 
 centuries Rome prevented it from being any boon to 
 the Italian people ; and of Paolo Sarpi, the historian 
 of the Council of Triest, Bedell knew the gospel of 
 Christ in its original fountains, and the Church 
 of Rome, in full bloom south of the Alps ; and he 
 rightly judged that the greatest gift that he could
 
 io8 LIFE OF GIDEON USE LEY. 
 
 bestow on the people of Ireland was the Book of God 
 in their own tongue. His was a memory from which 
 Ouseley gratefully drew inspiration. A labourer in 
 a humbler sphere, and of a rougher mould, he was 
 nevertheless continuing the effort to give the gospel 
 to Ireland in the language the people could under- 
 stand. 
 
 It was Ouseley's brother-missionary, James M'Quigg, 
 who was the first editor of the Irish Bible for the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society. He is said to 
 have been an admirable Irish scholar, and Mr Reil- 
 ly calls him " an able and acute preacher." He 
 carried the Bible through two editions ; and, at least 
 in the latter instance, collated it with Bedell's ori- 
 ginal manuscript. His career in the work of the 
 General Mission was short ; and many years after 
 retiring from it, he died, while preparing to carry a 
 third edition of the Irish Bible through the press. 
 
 The efforts of the missionaries in the town of 
 Clones, upon their return, were not suffered without 
 opposition. Graham's journal contains the follow- 
 ing account : 
 
 " On our return from the Dublin Conference in 
 the month of August, we found the rulers of Clones 
 took counsel together that we should no more preach 
 in the street; but we resolved to go on as usual. 
 Some of our friends thought it right that we should 
 speak to the magistrate and explain our position. 
 We did so, but all in vain. He resolved to carry 
 out his threats." After a lengthened conflict in the 
 street the scene thus ended : " We then went to Mr 
 Ouseley's door, the people following us. Mr Ouseley 
 ascended a block, and began to preach. The rector
 
 LABOURS WITH CHARLES GRAHAM. 109 
 
 cried out, l Call out the army.' The captain ap- 
 peared, the drums beat to arms, and the men were 
 drawn up. Immediately some of the yeomen ran 
 for their firearms. The magistrate, seeing that this 
 might lead to blood, ordered the soldiers back, and 
 ran up to Mr Ouseley and pulled him down from the 
 block, when I started up to finish my sermon. 
 Then he thought to pull me down, but he found to 
 his confusion that I was a little too heavy and 
 stiff, and not so easily moved. I finished, and pro- 
 nounced the benediction, and dismissed the con- 
 gregation." 
 
 The following evidently refers to a subsequent 
 occasion, on which Ouseley was alone. Mr Bonsall 
 gives the narrative as he had it from himself. In 
 the year 1800, the Rector of Clones, who was also 
 Dean of Clonmacnoise, and the curate, who was a 
 magistrate, united in prohibiting Mr Ouseley from 
 preaching in the street when he was about to do so. 
 While he was reading a portion of Scripture, both 
 the clergymen came up and ordered him to desist. 
 He gently remonstrated with them, but they threat- 
 ened to arrest him if he did not immediately comply. 
 He replied that, as he broke no law, human or 
 divine, and caused neither disturbance nor obstruc- 
 tion, he must beg them not to interrupt him. They 
 withdrew, but soon returned with a guard of soldiers, 
 who took him to the guard-house. The crowd, 
 swelled in numbers, followed and stood before the 
 place. " Being more favoured by the soldiers than 
 the divines/' he went to one of the windows and 
 continued his discourse to the people, but the rector 
 insisted that he should be removed to the back of
 
 1 1 o LIFE OF GIDEON O USELE Y. 
 
 the house. He was detained till evening, and then 
 released without any application on 'his part. Mr 
 Campbell alludes, but in general and reserved terms, 
 to the traditions of the neighbourhood as to the 
 subsequent lot of the two persecuting clergymen. 
 
 Graham tells of a case about this time, somewhere 
 in the Ballinamallard Circuit, when Mr Armstrong, 
 the preacher of the Circuit, was in company with 
 Ouseley and himself. They met a wedding-party 
 near to a chapel, in which the priest was waiting for 
 it. They began affectionately to speak to the young 
 couple, urging them to seek true union with the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Then Ouseley alighted from 
 his horse and knelt on the ground to pray with the 
 bride and bridegroom. Of course the other two 
 joined him. So the three preachers, as Mr Campbell 
 describes it, holding the reins in their hands, with 
 the wedding-party kneeling on the road around them, 
 prayed earnestly, while tears flowed, and the impatient 
 priest peeped from behind the half-opened chapel 
 door. 
 
 Mr Armstrong, just mentioned, wrote about this 
 time to Dr Coke, who published the letter in the 
 " Methodist Magazine " for 1801 (p. 542), giving some 
 account of the work of God, as he had himself wit- 
 nessed it in the course of this year. He said that, 
 as the field was large, the time short, and he kept no 
 journal, his account could not be a very full one. He 
 had belonged to the Methodists for about thirty-one 
 years, but had never seen a year like this one, for a 
 deep-spreading work. When preaching, he had often 
 been forced to stop, not being able to make his voice 
 heard by reason of cries coming from the people.
 
 LABOURS WITH CHARLES GRAHAM. in 
 
 " We often wrestled till the break of day." He 
 takes care to say that his colleagues were more 
 laborious and successful than himself, and complains 
 that at some of the love-feasts his enjoyment was 
 spoiled because the penitents would not quietly listen 
 while others related what God had done for them, 
 but would break out and cry aloud. During one of 
 these meetings, Graham and Ouseley made their 
 appearance. All order, he says, was laid aside. 
 " The spirit of deep conviction seized on the people; 
 it was like the Day of Pentecost." He proceeds to 
 describe their success in Cavan, Pettigo, Kesh, 
 Lowtherstown, Trill ick, and Dromore, and he con- 
 cludes by urging Dr Coke to get the missionaries to 
 come oftener to his Circuit. 
 
 It was about this time that, on one of their visits 
 to Lisbellaw, they were first beheld by one who still 
 survives, cherishing a thankful memory of them, and 
 hoping soon to join them in a better country. The 
 venerable John Nelson was then a boy at school, and 
 the master gave his pupils a holiday to go and hear 
 the " cavalry preachers." They were much talked 
 about, as well as stared at. The question was, 
 " Who, or what could they be ? " A number of 
 people gathered around the schoolmaster to ask his 
 opinion. It was delivered with such authority that 
 at least John Nelson thought it must be right. 
 " They are two discarded priests, who have taken 
 to this way for a living." 
 
 This reminds me of what I heard the late Mr 
 Hearne, of Ballina, tell of one of their most respected 
 contemporaries, in the Irish Conference, the Rev. 
 Charles Mayne. An old lady in a country town,
 
 ii2 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 being invited to go and hear him preach, was told 
 that he was the brother of Judge Mayne. " Dear 
 me," she exclaimed, " is he now ? a brother of Judge 
 Mayne ! And what could have brought him to that? 
 I suppose it must have been the drink." 
 
 At Charlemont some of the officers resolved to 
 have fun out of the " Black Caps," but most of them 
 soon felt ashamed. One, however, said, " I charge 
 you not to preach in the street any more. Your 
 
 doctrine is very good, but you make such a 
 
 noise that the town is annoyed." Ouseley replied, 
 " We do make a noise, but ours is a hallowed noise." 
 At Loughall two men in authority declared that, if 
 they came there, they would send them to ; 
 
 but neither the parson nor Colonel C could 
 
 stand the power with which they spoke. At Armagh 
 they say that all came to hear, except the rich. At 
 Portadown they had a numerous and attentive audi- 
 ence. A Roman Catholic woman, at Bluestones, 
 declared that she had been in company with twelve 
 priests, but had never heard this way of salvation 
 before. At Keady a man cried, " The other clergy 
 may throw their caps at them." One day in December 
 of this year, Graham writes from Enniskillen to his 
 son, exulting in what he had witnessed that day. 
 He says that Mr Stewart, the Circuit preacher, 
 mounted his horse, took his stand with them, and 
 did valiantly. He had never seen the prejudices of 
 Enniskillen conquered before, but he thought this 
 was one of the best days 'he ever had witnessed. 
 " The numbers converted in the last few weeks had 
 been astonishing; many of the Roman Catholics 
 since we left Clones."
 
 LABOURS WITH CHARLES GRAHAM. 113 
 
 The secret of this good man's public power may 
 in part be learned by an entry in his journal made 
 about this time at the house of Mr M'Donald near 
 Enniskillen. " All glory to God ! He met me here 
 in a manner that I can hardly describe. So much 
 of His love and power did He let down into my soul, 
 that nature could hardly sustain itself. I for some 
 moments thought I should have fainted; nor was I 
 sure but that the Lord was about to call me from the 
 body. Lord ! give me grace and wisdom to guard 
 this sacred treasure." At Lowtherstown some of 
 the officers threatened to duck the missionaries, or 
 bayonet them, if they did not desist ; but they were 
 neither ducked nor bayoneted. Ouseley about this 
 time met with a serious loss, for his horse died. 
 There was, however, a Mr Little of Redhill, who had 
 been converted through the instrumentality of the 
 missionaries, and whose house had in consequence 
 become the home of the Methodist preachers ; and 
 he made up the loss by making Ouseley a present of 
 a good horse. 
 
 Once, when they were preaching in Cavan, it is 
 stated that the Roman Catholics showed great con- 
 cern, even alarm, when told that " neither salt, nor 
 water, nor oil, nor beads, would ever save them." 
 One of these men cried out, "It cost me half-a- 
 guinea for wine and spirits at the last confession." 
 It is not to be supposed that the wine and spirits were 
 the confessor's fee that would be paid by all the 
 penitents alike ; but the wine and spirits mark a 
 superior style of privilege. Probably this person had 
 been the host of the priests, who were in the habit 
 of announcing from the altar that, on such and such
 
 114 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 days, they would hold " Stations " at the house of so- 
 and-so, those selected generally being the most com- 
 fortable ones in their respective neighbourhoods. To 
 these the people from around came, and were confessed 
 and absolved by the priests. After this was over, the 
 evening was given up to hospitality. The host on 
 such an occasion was bound to entertain to the very 
 best of his power. Carleton minutely describes one 
 such " Station," and any one who has had the honour 
 of an invitation to "dine with the clergy," which 
 occasionally was extended to neighbouring Protes- 
 tants, and sometimes was embraced with avidity, can 
 speak to the truthfulness of the substantial points of 
 his sketch. 
 
 It is about this time that Mr Campbell fixes the date 
 of the conversion of Terry M'Gowan, the cock-fighter, 
 one which, in the phrase of the people, became " the 
 talk of the country-side." Terry lived near Maguire's 
 Bridge, and one market-day, making for the cockpit, 
 he entered the town with a game-cock under his 
 swallow-tail coat. On turning a corner, he found 
 two men before him on horseback with black caps. 
 They were making the street resound with the 
 accents of his mother-tongue. Terry stood and lis- 
 tened, eyes and all. They talked of the great and 
 terrible day, when sin shall be all uncovered, and the 
 righteous shall shine like the sun at the Lord's right 
 hand. Then they called loudly on every sinner there 
 to lose no time, but surrender at once to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ before it was too late. Terry knew not 
 what a finger had touched him. The cockpit had 
 gone clean out of his mind, and he thought that the 
 judgment-day was fast coming. He wanted to lift
 
 LABOURS WITH CHARLES GRAHAM. 115 
 
 up both hands and call upon God, and the one which 
 had been keeping guard, under his coat-tail, forgot 
 its charge. The two hands went up together to pre- 
 sent the publican's prayer, and the game-cock was 
 gone. "Terry prayed and wept, and cried aloud 
 again and again," entreating for that mercy which he 
 heard God would grant, and for the sake of that 
 Jesus who, he knew, died for men. There, upon 
 the street, He, whose mercy endureth for ever, heard 
 the cry of poor Terry, and blessed his soul. A peace 
 aud gladness, such as before that moment he never 
 knew, were shed abroad in his heart, and his spirit 
 began to rejoice in God his Saviour. Home he went 
 bounding, to tell wife and children the strange way 
 in which he had been made a winner that day. 
 They heard, but did not understand. He made 
 them all go down upon their knees to give thanks 
 to God for the deliverance He had granted to him. 
 His w T ife told one of the children to go to the house 
 of a neighbour, and beg them to hasten away for the 
 priest, because Terry had come home from the mar- 
 ket out of his mind. In the poor woman's idea, the 
 duty of the priest in this case would be to charm 
 away the madness ; or, if he owned that he could 
 not do that, to advise what must be done with the 
 madman. When the priest arrived, he inquired what 
 was the matter. 
 
 " Never better in my life," said Terry. 
 
 " Nonsense," replied his reverence ; but he soon 
 saw further into the case than the poor wife had done. 
 " Did you bear the Blackcaps?" 
 
 " I did, thank God." 
 
 " So I thought. Those fellows would turn the
 
 n6 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 world inad. Well, now, Terry, just mind your own 
 business, and go to your duty next Sunday." 
 
 " I will, if your reverence will do one thing for 
 me." 
 
 "What is that, Terry?" 
 
 " It is to come with me to Maguire's Bridge, to get 
 the Lord to undo what He did for me there this day." 
 " What did He do for you ? " 
 11 He said to me there, 'Terry M' Go wan, your sins, 
 which were many, are all forgiven you.' ' 
 
 This was more than the priest could stand. It 
 was as if his business had been taken out of his 
 hands, and claimed for a higher tribunal. 
 
 " I give you up as a lost case," he said to Terry, 
 and took his leave. 
 
 Thus left to his new-found way, Terry went on, 
 led of the Lord, from strength to strength. After a 
 while, he began to go about holding prayer-meetings ; 
 and, plain man as he was, he was made a blessing to 
 many. When his end drew nigh, the " neighbours" 
 made great efforts to get the priest admitted to his 
 dying bed; but no. The Protestant clergyman 
 came to give Terry the Lord's Supper, but so fearful 
 was he lest the people should think that he had any 
 notion that the elements could be changed by the 
 word of man, or placed any confidence in old forms, 
 that he entreated the minister, instead of reading 
 prayers out of a book, to pray extempore. After he 
 had prevailed upon him to do this twice, he said that 
 now he must pray himself, as he wanted " a fuller 
 manifestation of the countenance of God." He did 
 pray, and it seemed as if the Lord had descended, 
 and filled the place with His glory. It is said that,
 
 LABOURS WITH CHARLES GRAHAM. 117 
 
 ever afterwards, the clergyman thanked God for that 
 day. Mr Campbell, a good many years ago, went 
 out of his way to see a daughter of Terry's in the 
 county of Fermanagh, whom he found aged and in 
 affliction, but very happy in God. 
 
 In the "Methodist Magazine" for 1802, at page 40, 
 we find a letter to Dr Coke, written before the 
 Conference of 1801, by Mr Thomas Davis, the Super- 
 intendent of the Clones Circuit, describing the work 
 of God as he had seen it in his own sphere during 
 the year. He had feared, in returning from the 
 previous Conference, that the second year would not 
 be like the preceding one ; but it had proved better 
 and better. The power which had accompanied the 
 Word had often brought him a refreshing view of St 
 Peter preaching to the multitude. The first Sunday- 
 after Conference, as he preached, numbers were 
 melted down and sought mercy with prayers and 
 tears, and the meeting lasted from four in the after- 
 noon till eleven at night. In going round his 
 Circuit, he had more than once taken from twenty to 
 fifty new members into the Societies at a time. At 
 the love-feasts, they had often to go out into the 
 fields, and sometimes held them in storms of wind 
 and rain. He says that his constitution is much 
 hurt, but his consolation is, that, in the course of 
 the year, God has added 746 members to the 
 Societies in his Circuit. What he says of Graham 
 and Ouseley we must give in full : 
 
 " Permit me, dear sir, to say something of the Irish mission- 
 aries, Messrs Graham and Ouseley. The mighty power of God 
 accompanied their word with such demonstrative evidence as I 
 have never known, or indeed very rarely heard of. I have been
 
 ii8 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 present in fairs and markets while these two blessed men of 
 God, with burning zeal and apostolic ardour, pointed hundreds 
 and thousands to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of 
 the world. And I have seen the immediate fruit of their labour, 
 the aged and the young falling prostrate in the most public 
 places of concourse, cut to the heart, and refusing to be comforted 
 until they knew Jesus and the power of His resurrection. I 
 have known scores of these poor penitents stand up and witness 
 a good confession ; and, blessed be God, hundreds of men now 
 stand and adorn the gospel of Christ Jesus. These two men 
 have been the most indefatigable in their labours of love to 
 perishing sinners of any that I have yet known. From four to 
 six hours they would preach, exhort, and pray, and next day 
 perhaps ride a journey, and encounter the same labour of love. 
 
 Thus 
 
 " ' They scorned their feeble flesh to spare, 
 Regardless of its swift decline.' 
 
 " My dear sir, I am wanting both in memory and language to 
 set forth the wonders I have seen wrought by the mighty power 
 of the Holy Spirit. When I look at the usefulness of these two 
 clear men, I am humbled to the dust ; and again, when I view 
 them, with shattered frames and wrecked constitutions, stepping 
 into the grave, I am truly affected. But it is God's own work, 
 and He is able to raise up labourers, and qualify them for the 
 greatest tasks." 
 
 Once more they turned their faces towards the 
 Conference with glad hearts. Tlieir brethren from 
 the different Circuits which they had visited in their 
 journeys would tell them what gracious things the 
 Lord had wrought, not only during their own presence, 
 but in fruits manifesting themselves when they had 
 passed from off the ground. Success had attended 
 the labours of their brethren in the two other mission 
 tracts, though not in an equal degree. Indeed, in 
 that year prosperity had been granted to the Cir- 
 cuits of the Irish Connexion generally, so that, with
 
 LABOURS WITH CHARLES GRAHAM. 119 
 
 exceeding great joy, the Conference was able to 
 record an increase in the Societies of close upon 
 five thousand members, making, with that of the 
 preceding year, more than eight thousand in all. 
 The Conference records its belief that the Irish 
 Mission, in both south and west, had been success- 
 ful in a very encouraging degree. As to that in the 
 north, with which our narrative is concerned, it says 
 that the success has been u very considerable among 
 the Roman Catholics, and its usefulness in stirring 
 up Protestants almost unbounded," and that, in con- 
 junction with the labours of the regular preachers, 
 it had been the means of the conversion of " vast 
 numbers."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FURTHER MISSIONARY LABOURS IN CONNECTION 
 WITH MR GRAHAM. 
 
 THE field appointed to our two fellow-labourers 
 by the Conference of 1801 was " the Province of 
 Ulster." 
 
 Mr George Brown, of the Boyle Circuit, a minister 
 of whom it is said by Smith, in his " History of 
 Methodism in Ireland," that he was, " living and 
 dying, a bright pattern of Christian simplicity, and 
 of that perfect love which casteth out fear," wrote to 
 Dr Coke in August 1801 : 
 
 " Yesterday I received your favour, and send you an account 
 of the revival in the Cavaii Circuit briefly as follows. When I 
 returned from the Conference in July 1800, I found some had 
 obtained a consciousness of the pardoning mercy of God in the 
 time of our absence by means of the local preachers and lively 
 zealous class -leaders. Our love -feasts were crowned with 
 wonderful outpourings of the Spirit of grace. Silent tears 
 flowed freely. Some were constrained to cry out for mercy, 
 and very few of them went away until their sorrow was turned 
 into joy unspeakable. Poor backsliders were restored, and u 
 few obtained the direct witness of a full sauctification. 
 
 " Two young men had met in order to fight a duel, but were 
 prevented by means of a wall falling on one of the spectators 
 and crushing him to death. Some mouths after this, they were
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 121 
 
 converted by means of the Irish missionaries, and joined the 
 Society. They now walk in love as dear comrades in the way to 
 Zion, and are as zealous for God as they had been in all manner 
 of wickedness before. At a prayer-meeting which the Irish 
 missionaries held in one of our new places, fifteen persons were 
 converted. As I could not neglect my stated places of preaching, 
 I spent very little time with our dear missionaries last year. Mr 
 Ouseley was three nights with us. In that time, twenty-four 
 persons, I believe, found redemption in the blood of the Lamb, 
 among whom were two Roman Catholics, and another was deeply 
 convinced ; he is now converted, and has withstood the priest to 
 his face. Two more of them in the same neighbourhood were 
 convinced, and sat at liberty, while my wife prayed with them 
 in Irish. We must confess that the Lord has crowned the labours 
 of the regular preachers in the several Circuits with very great 
 success. Nevertheless, under His blessing, I cannot but attribute 
 our late extraordinary revivals in the north to the missionaries. 
 They, sir, have provoked us to jealousy, and made us ashamed 
 to stand still, whilst they laboured, with all their powers, by day 
 and by night. 
 
 " I have the pleasure of informing you, that we added 226 to 
 our number last year, and left 101 on trial ; 192 professed justi- 
 fication, and as 14 of these found mercy since Mr Douglas and 
 I left them, you will see that the good work is still going on. All 
 glory be to God and the Lamb for ever ! Last Sunday morn- 
 ing, after preaching near Carrick-on-Shannon, I spoke to the 
 men, and my wife to the women ; at which time four females 
 received the witness of adopting love. If we continue humble, 
 steadfast,and faithful, keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bonds 
 of peace, harmony, and love, Satan's tottering kingdom shall fall 
 before Him who sits on the right of the Majesty on high until 
 all His enemies are made His footstool." 
 
 Though the appointed circle of our evangelists, 
 embracing the nine counties of Ulster, appeared 
 large, we suddenly find them in the south of Ireland. 
 Mr Langtree, at page 115 of his narrative, describes
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 a visit to Tipperary, stating that he himself took his 
 place with them on horseback in the streets of 
 Clonmel, where they were violently opposed by the 
 mob, but preached with fearless fidelity. A sort of 
 madman was set up to preach in derision, but did 
 little harm. Next day, when the missionaries again 
 appeared, the disturbers advanced, blowing a horn. 
 Some influential members of the Society of Friends 
 went to a magistrate applying for protection, which 
 they obtained. On the third day, when again in the 
 streets, some women assailed them with bitter and 
 wicked words, but were overcome by a powerful 
 appeal of Mr Ouseley. Then the men began picking 
 up stones and dirt to pelt them, but they were seized 
 by the soldiers, and carried off to prison. As the 
 preachers left the town, they were once more at- 
 tacked, though little hurt. 
 
 From a letter of Mr Graham to Dr Coke, pub- 
 lished in the "Methodist Magazine " of 1802, p. 472, 
 it appears that before they started on this journey, 
 which lasted eighteen weeks, he was spitting blood ; 
 but in the course of it he had not been confined to 
 bed except for five days, and that with heavy colds, 
 of which he made light. He exults in the fact that 
 the priests cannot any longer prevent the people 
 from coming to hear. Some Methodists, he finds, 
 think, if the downfall of Babylon is not accomplished 
 at once, it will not come at all ; but he hopes, after 
 they have been seven times round the island, the walls 
 will come tumbling down. His " seven times " need 
 a more patient interpretation than even he was pre- 
 pared to give them. 
 
 He goes on to state, that, even in places where
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 123 
 
 they expected nothing but persecution, they saw 
 the people weeping and praying in the streets. In 
 the city of Limerick, and around it, the Lord was 
 very manifestly with them; " a mighty fire has been 
 kindled, and continues burning." In Kerry, the 
 scene of former labours of Graham, they had much 
 in which to rejoice, and no opposition till they 
 reached the town of Tralee. " Here you would have 
 imagined that hell was let loose. Though my voice 
 is pretty loud, I could not be heard. Such shouting 
 of men, women, and children, I think I never heard 
 before ; and although we had four or five magistrates 
 on our side, and officers and yeomen, and many 
 Protestants, it did not avail." Nevertheless, they 
 preached in the court-house to many hundreds, yet 
 under the protection of a guard of soldiers. One of 
 the Roman Catholics went up to three priests and 
 said, " Your people are in the dark, and so you 
 would have it." 
 
 Entering the county of Cork, they found at 
 Skibbereen a good reception, and the people seemed 
 to be prepared of the Lord. In the market they 
 were heard gladly, and the next day being Sunday, 
 the poor .people flocked about them in hundreds. 
 While they were preaching, a priest came up and 
 tried cavalry-preaching after his manner, " riding 
 furiously through the crowd, lashing with his whip 
 on every hand." The people ran, tumbling one over an- 
 other. He then called them to the chapel and lectured 
 them ; but a Roman Catholic gentleman lectured him, 
 and said he would write to the bishop and have him 
 discarded. The preachers held their ground, and 
 preached on " after the hurry was over," the Catholics
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 hearing in both street and chapel with hearts greatly 
 broken down, and some of them saying " they could 
 follow us through the world." 
 
 At Bantry, Mr Graham thought that Satan was 
 very destitute of friends, for no one molested them 
 but one old woman making a great noise. 
 
 When in full and happy activity at Baudon, they 
 heard that Mrs Graham was dying, and set out for 
 Monaghan, preaching by the way at Cork, Kinsale, 
 and many other places ; and yet in five and a half 
 days riding 176 Irish miles, which make about 230 
 English. On arriving at Monaghan, happily they 
 found Mrs Graham recovering. They soon revisited 
 the south, making a tour of twelve weeks. Private 
 letters, written by different persons, describing the 
 effects of their preaching, are quoted at length by Mr 
 Campbell. 
 
 One writer from Bandon says that the flame has 
 spread through the Western Circuits ; that in their 
 own they have an increase of two hundred members. 
 Another from Cork tells his friends that poor and 
 rich, profane and moral, scoffer and inquirer, Papist 
 and Protestant, indiscriminately fell beneath the 
 mighty power of God ; and that in ten days one 
 hundred and twenty persons had been converted. 
 Another, speaking of the region to the west of 
 Bandon, says that never did any one now living see 
 such a day at Ballydehob ; no less than sixty found 
 peace with God, in Dunmanway thirty, and in other 
 places twenty-nine. 
 
 In the year 1802, Graham and Ouseley were 
 appointed to labour in Leinster, Ulster, and all 
 Muuster, excepting the county of Clare, which was
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 12$ 
 
 attached to the Connaught Mission under Messrs 
 Kane and Allen. 
 
 In July of this year Mr Ouseley appears to have 
 begun to keep a fyasty journal. He describes their 
 travelling from Dublin to Mr Fox's, talking to the 
 people and distributing papers, and lifting up a voice 
 of warning in every place through which they passed. 
 The following day they rode thirty miles to Cootehill, 
 once more, in every town and village along the road, 
 calling upon the people to prepare to meet the Lord. 
 In one small village, as Ouseley talked with the 
 people, and gave them his papers, they fell on their 
 knees upon the road ; and he, sitting on his horse, 
 prayed with them. When he left, they "poured 
 blessings after me;" but he went on, reflecting, what 
 a change would come when the priest should see the 
 papers and sour their minds. 
 
 On the 24th of July he speaks of preaching in 
 Brother Wyley's " haggard " (stackyard). At a 
 prayer-meeting subsequently held in the house, his 
 attention was arrested by the prayer of one of the 
 leaders, which was remarkably sensible, and accom- 
 panied by deep feeling on the part of the people. 
 It proved that this man was one who had come to 
 mock the first time they visited this part of the 
 country, but was "struck," and now was a useful 
 leader of a class. 
 
 Soon after he writes, at Brother Whitley's at Goley, 
 that he met with a lately-married couple, who had 
 been Koman Catholics, and whose hearts were over- 
 flowing with gratitude to God for His goodness to 
 their souls. When the young man brought home 
 his bride, his mother fully expected to get her to
 
 126 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 accompany her to mass, and by this means gradually 
 to cure her son of his " swaddling," as the term was. 
 But, instead of this, the young couple commenced 
 holding family prayer. The mother removed her bed 
 out of the house into the barn, that " she should not 
 be hearkening to their heretical prayers ; " but she 
 afterwards compromised by prevailing upon them to 
 have prayers during the time that she milked the 
 cow. 
 
 On the 26th of the same month, after describing 
 his labours in Monaghan, he says, " As I rode to and 
 from the market, I met many to speak to of the 
 things of God. How delightful to be found in this 
 duty particularly ! I feel God is greatly pleased 
 with it. My soul is made so very happy when I 
 diligently perform it ; so true is the scripture, He 
 that watereth others shall also be watered him- 
 self." 
 
 On the 29th, at the funeral of Mrs Gregston, who 
 living had adorned the gospel, and dying had rejoiced 
 in its salvation, while Graham was preaching, Ouseley 
 went up to a group of people who held themselves 
 aloof. One young man broke out into blasphemy. 
 When rebuked, he threatened to ill-use Mr Ouseley; 
 and the next day he came up to him and renewed the 
 attack with frightful oaths and threats. Ouseley 
 says he had not been so abused for five or six 
 years, " but a servant, acting as a master directs, 
 must expect no better treatment than the master." 
 
 On August the 4th he says : 
 
 " We rode into the market at Aughnacloy, and truly a vast 
 congregation surrounded us. The people heard with deep atten- 
 tion, and with many sighs and tears. I do think instead of
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 127 
 
 being more embittered, the Catholics are still more pleased the 
 more they hear. I hope that many will pluck up resolution, and 
 give them market, street, and fair preaching ; and thus the light 
 will spread and prevail in spite of all the powers of earth and 
 hell. Here I gave some tracts, which they gladly received." 
 
 That same evening they preached in a field. On 
 the 5th of August 
 
 " We rode to the fair at Middletown. When we came in, and 
 took our stand and put oil our caps, a vast crowd came around 
 us. As one of us preached, a man, half-drunk, stood in the 
 crowd and listened for a while, but then began to make a dis- 
 turbance, and to challenge our authority for preaching, telling 
 the people it was the devil's preaching. I bid him to be quiet 
 for a while, and spoke in an affectionate way to him ; but he 
 went away grumbling. It seems he was a degraded, drunken 
 priest, that thus came forward to defend the faith, as he sup- 
 posed ; but we proceeded, and for the most part all the people 
 were deeply attentive, till a magistrate came, just as we were 
 concluding, to stop us. We had some reasoning with him. He 
 insisted that he would stop us, or that he would disperse the 
 crowd. I replied, If it were a ballad-singer, he would not be 
 heeded, arid that we were ready to go to jail for the truth. He 
 rode away, and we, after a little while, did so too. Along the 
 way home we had much conversation with several Catholics." 
 
 On the 8th of August he thus writes : 
 
 " I went out early this morning to meet a class. Every heart 
 seemed to feel the work of the Lord. I was greatly blessed 
 among them. After breakfast, we went to Rockcorry, where we 
 met Brother Barber. Here a great congregation came together. 
 The house was quite thronged, and the power of the Lord was 
 blessedly among the people. Some souls were born again, and, 
 in short, every heart seemed powerfully to feel the operation of 
 the Divine Spirit. After preaching, I went to visit a friend in 
 the town, and the other preachers rode on before me on the 
 way to Monaghan. As I rode along in company with some of
 
 128 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 our friends, we catne to the Roman Catholic chapel, which is 
 near the roadside. Here many were sitting and lying on the 
 grass, waiting for the priest. When I came amongst them, I 
 began to speak to them mildly of the things of God. They 
 received it with much cordiality, and several began to draw near. 
 One opposer cried out to them to beware of me, and after a little 
 he came forward with the multitude, and immediately wanted 
 to enter into some dispute with me about doctrinal points. I 
 gently told them all, that I did not want to contend about points, 
 but as a friend to incite them to goodness and love. Many of 
 them were well pleased, and desired me not to fear. I spoke to 
 him till he was quite puzzled in everything. Whilst yet we 
 were speaking, up came the priest all in a fury. The people got 
 before him, and bid him go away. So he went into the chapel, 
 and began to ring the bell, but many of them stood to hear us 
 speaking. I was about going, some of them beginning to express 
 anger. A woman took my mare by the bridle, saying I should 
 not leave that till I would clear up the point. Others said T 
 spoke what was right, and no man should touch me. However, 
 when I saw contention among them, I moved on. It seems that 
 the opposer was a schoolmaster. As I was just departing, out 
 came the priest scolding, and a great many with him. He began 
 to beat the people, and to call me names ; but I did not heed 
 him, and quietly rode away. They still contended among them- 
 selves, some saying that I was right and a good man, and others 
 that I was a deceiver; so that they gave each other the lie." 
 
 On August the 23d lie thus writes : 
 
 " We went to Friend Anderson's. Before dinner I walked out, 
 ami went into one of the Friend's houses, where I met a young 
 girl who was a Catholic, spinning at her wheel. I began to speak 
 to her, and the Lord so applied the word to her heart, that her 
 tears began to flow down. I called them to prayer, and she and 
 several wept sore, but she roared aloud. The family of the next 
 house, hearing the cry, ran out ; and among these was another 
 Catholic or two, but one of them also was bathed in tears while 
 yet we prayed together. At night again the people assembled, 
 including several Catholics, and truly we had a very blessed
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM, 129 
 
 time ; all seemed keenly to feel the Divine power. Wheu we 
 were leaving this, the poor Catholic girls, particularly, wept to- 
 gether. The one that was first struck was very fond of dances, 
 and used to curse, but now she seemed resolved to turn to the 
 Lord. Her neighbours began to say that her parents would kill 
 her, and what not ; but when she told her mother how the Lord 
 had touched and turned her heart, the mother herself said she 
 also would go to hear us, and would not hurt her." 
 
 On August the 25th he writes : 
 
 " We rode into the fair of Killeshandra. We were surrounded 
 by multitudes of poor Catholics, who seemed exceedingly glad 
 to see us once more, and now heard us with flowing tears. It 
 seemed as if their prejudice were fled. O Lord, hasten their 
 deliverance ! At night we preached at Friend Johnston's, about 
 five miles from the fair, and had a happy meeting. Here I met 
 a very bigoted and self-wise Catholic. At first he was very per- 
 verse, but after I had given him one of my little addresses to a 
 Catholic, and reasoned with him, he went for his wife and for 
 other Catholics, till we spoke, and sang, and prayed with them. 
 How gentleness and patience do win upon these ! They went 
 away very thankful, and I saw them at some of our meetings after 
 that, with their tears flowing." 
 
 After mentioning good meetings at Widow Hodg- 
 ing's and Friend Trotter's, he says, on September the 
 3d: 
 
 " We rode to Ballyconnel market, and had to pass some rivers 
 with some difficulty and danger, they were so full from the rain 
 the day before. The people in the market gave us a very atten- 
 tive hearing. The hearts of many poor Catholics were broken, 
 and their tears flowed. They seemed well pleased. We stopped 
 at a friend's house, dried off the perspiration, and after a little 
 refreshment rode out to the country. As I was riding off through 
 the market, the people again came round me; and I spoke to them 
 to their great satisfaction. This evening turned out very wet. 
 We dined at Friend Anderson's, and at night the house filled with 
 
 I
 
 130 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 people. We had a very blessed time. The two Catholic girls 
 that were awakened the last time we were in this part of the 
 country were to-night greatly melted, and professed to have re- 
 ceived the pardoning love of God. They came also the next 
 morning to see us, and both seemed very happy and very loving." 
 
 On the 4th, after preaching at Swanlinbar, they 
 rode to Furnaceland, and there we find the following 
 words : 
 
 " Closed the week's labour, and lay down weary and worn, yet 
 happy in God. And what on earth can equal this ? What king 
 can boast such true, substantial, and solid happiness ? Ye are 
 kings, saith the apostle ; yes, and more than kings ; happier than 
 any, and moving in a grander sphere ; ambassadors for Christ 
 to immortal souls." 
 
 On the 7th we have the following : 
 
 " We came to Froree. The power of the Lord greatly appeared 
 to reach the hearts of the people, while Brother Graham preached 
 from Revelation iii. 20, ' Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; ' 
 also at prayer. A Roman Catholic that had been convinced 
 when we were in this country before, and had received happiness 
 from God, brought out his wife to-night to hear us. She cried 
 and wept sore ; and after a while the Lord made her happy in 
 His love. Oh, with what joy the husband and she returned to 
 their little hut !" 
 
 On the 13th: 
 
 "We preached here to the market-people, and had a blessed, 
 attentive hearing, with the tears flowing. I gave out papers, ami 
 the people were well pleased. In general, when we were distri- 
 buting such among them, they ran for them so greedily as almost 
 to crush us against one another, and the horses so, that we were 
 often afraid the horses would hurt both them and us." 
 
 On the 17th : 
 " This morning, I went to see an old Catholic man, who had
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 131 
 
 been convinced of sin some time ago, and met in class for a 
 while ; but through evil reasonings, he cast away his confidence 
 and fell into a deep melancholy, became unable to do any business, 
 and, as it were, insensible and inconsolable. As I approached his 
 hut, I heard him muttering something in his little room. When 
 I came in, his wife called him out. He came, and a wretched 
 sight was he to behold, all emaciated, dejected, and self-neglected. 
 He said little or nothing, but chattering to himself, sat down by 
 the fire. I spoke a little in Irish and English, and then sang an 
 Irish hymn. While I was singing, I observed him stealing a 
 look at me through his fingers, which covered his face. He 
 seemed pleased and astonished, and the tears began to fall down 
 his cheeks as I sang. After that, I spoke to him. He replied, 
 he had no hope. He said, he could not be saved ; he had no 
 heart, his heart was gone. He said, he could not pray at all ; 
 though he might stir his lips, his heart would not pray. I called 
 him to kneel down, which he did ; and while prayer was made 
 many came in, and the power of the Lord began to reach the 
 people's hearts, so that the house was filled with noise and 
 mourning. He, poor man, wept bitterly for a time, and then 
 broke out into a most pathetic prayer a prayer that reached 
 every heart. His poor wife also wept sore. After prayer I again 
 spoke to him. He said, still he had no heart ; that there was no 
 good in him. 'But,' said he, ' though I myself should be lost, I wish 
 all the world would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and go to 
 heaven.' Then I asked him, would he be satisfied to be parted 
 from the Lord Jesus. He burst into tears, and cried, ' Oh, no, no 
 no, no ! ' So I left him, and hope I shall see him in glory. 
 After this I rode off to Derrykihane, to the Quarterly Meeting 
 (love-feast). The people were wellnigh gathered. We held 
 the meeting in a field. There was some softening power 
 while Brother Graham preached from Eev. xix. 9, 'Blessed 
 are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' 
 At the love-feast we had some sweet gales, as it were, only for 
 a few moments, and then again all seemed cold and unusually 
 dry. Thus we continued for two or three hours, while the 
 people were hearing and speaking their experiences. I was 
 looking on, not without some degree of pain. I saw a young
 
 132 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 woman at a distance, pensive-looking. I went round to 
 her, and began to speak to her. Her heart began to give 
 way. I brought her into the midst of the people, sang a 
 hymn, and the tears began to flow from them on every side. I 
 then called on all that felt distress to draw near. Many came, 
 and we kneeled down ; and while prayer was made, God heard 
 and sent down His power, and then indeed many began to cry 
 for mercy. The field was wet, which was not known when we 
 began ; yet the people lay on their faces even in the wet without 
 regarding it, and cried, and prayed on. I had to roll my pocket- 
 handkerchief into a lump and put it under my knees ; and yet 
 the wet reached over it through my small-clothes and stockings. 
 The Lord mercifully set several souls at liberty. To His name 
 be the glory. 'Tis His Spirit alone, and not the exertions of 
 man though often He seconds and blesses such that can reach 
 an immortal soul." 
 
 He does not name the place where, on the 21st of 
 this month, they held a love-feast in a field with 
 several Roman Catholics present. At night they held 
 another meeting, and about half-a-dozen Roman 
 Catholics were crying for mercy at the same time. 
 One man who had been awakened when they had 
 visited the neighbourhood previously, but had been 
 led back by his wife and friends, now " roared for 
 the disquietude of his heart." A little Catholic 
 maid, who had been converted a few months 
 previously, was sitting, with her sister lying across 
 her knees, crying and faint. After a while, the Lord 
 set her at liberty ; and also another Catholic woman. 
 On September the 3d, he states that while Brother 
 Graham preached, his voice could hardly be heard 
 for sighs and cries. In the evening of the same day 
 at Lisslean House, though it poured with rain, the 
 crowd was such that it was impossible to kneel ; but
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 133 
 
 the feeling of those present appears to have been 
 remarkable even for the meetings of Graham and 
 Ouseley. On the 6th, at Drumclamp, high on the 
 hills of Tyrone, near Castlederg, after the meeting, 
 Ouseley says, " We were wet all through with per- 
 spiration ; the very lining of my sleeves was as if my 
 coat had been in water." The next day, in Omagh, 
 Protestants and Catholics heard with flowing tears, 
 crying, "It is all right, all true." And the day after, 
 at Fintona, "almost all the market came round us." 
 On the Sunday they heard the Rector of Fintona, 
 the Rev. Mr Athill, preach a sermon, which was to 
 the point, was spirit and life. 
 
 In November 1802 ("Methodist Magazine," 1803, 
 page 375), the Chairman of the Clones District, Mr 
 Steward, wrote to Dr Coke, stating that there were 
 seventy-two members of the Methodist Society in the 
 district who had been Roman Catholics, though the 
 priests employed every art to terrify them, such as 
 cursing, ringing the bell, and quenching the candle. 
 Only a week previously a young man had been 
 seized, and after various attempts at persuasion, the 
 priests cried out, " Speaking will not do," and began 
 to cast salt and water upon him, at the same 
 time repeating the words, " Go out, Graham ; " but 
 the exorcism failed, and Mr Steward hopes that the 
 young man will continue to the end. He also states 
 his intention of specially inviting the Roman Catholic 
 converts to the next love-feast, and presenting each 
 with a copy of the Word of God in the presence of 
 the assembled brethren, as a token of their love to 
 their souls. 
 
 In November we find them amidst the charming
 
 134 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 scenery of Wicklow, visiting among other places the 
 residence of the Tighe family, long connected with 
 traditions of piety and goodness. John Wesley was 
 painted, preaching in the demesne, in a pleasant pic- 
 ture which belonged to the late Mr Farmer, and 
 still is at Gunnersbury House. 
 
 On November the 26th he writes: "Left Dublin 
 for Rosanna. As we were riding through Newton - 
 Kennedy, I saw a number of people assembled at a 
 door, where it seems they were drinking. I rode up 
 to them, and took out a few tracts, spoke to them 
 in a gentle manner concerning eternal things, and 
 gave them the tracts. They were greatly pleased, 
 and returned me thanks ; but an old man came 
 forward, nearly drunk, and, dreadfully blaspheming 
 because the other Catholics should listen to me at 
 all, he cursed me with many abusive names. The 
 rest pulled him away. I rode on a little further in 
 the street, pulled out more tracts, and called the 
 inhabitants to come to me. So they ran, and I gave 
 them the tracts. The old fellow, seeing this, came 
 forward again, uttering horrid curses. I rode away, 
 and then he returned to the ale-house, cursing the 
 swaddlers, Protestants, and especially the Orange- 
 men. It seems that two of the latter were drinking 
 in the house, and hearing, and not having patience, 
 one of them stood up and knocked him down. Some 
 other of the Catholics took his part, and a bloody 
 battle ensued, in which the Catholics suffered and 
 had to run away. What a pity that people called 
 Christians do not understand the true nature of 
 Christianity ! for then they would not quarrel, but 
 love and serve each other, like the children of God
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 135 
 
 and disciples of the Lord Jesus. It was pretty late 
 when we arrived at Rosanna in company with 
 Brother Howe. 
 
 " 27th. This night Brother Graham preached in 
 Mrs Tighe's house, and had a good time, though 
 they seemed very still and hardy. 
 
 " 28th. This Sabbath morning I preached again 
 in this house from Matthew vi. 9, ( Our Father 
 which art in heaven.' The Lord gave much free- 
 dom, and a great power appeared to reach every heart; 
 all faces were wet with weeping. Even the children 
 a sweet flock, which Mrs Tighe charitably supports 
 and educates here were melted into floods of tears. 
 From hence we rode into Wicklow, and after church, 
 as the congregation came pouring into the streets, 
 we sat on horseback. Brother Graham preached an 
 awful sermon, and I exhorted till covered with 
 perspiration. The people heard with the greatest 
 solemnity, and at night the house was filled, and the 
 Lord was with us. The people appeared to drink in 
 the Word, and I trust many powerfully felt. 
 
 11 29th. We again preached in the house, which 
 was unusually filled ; and I trust good was done, for 
 many appeared to feel very deeply. 
 
 " 30th. We returned to Rosanna again. They all 
 were glad to see us. Mrs Tighe was very kind and 
 attentive. This day and night we had two other 
 meetings here. The people seemed much moved. 
 The servants, some of whom were backsliders, cried 
 out in the bitterness of their distress. 
 
 " December 1st. The Rev. Thomas Kelly preached 
 an excellent gospel sermon on the new birth, and we 
 prayed, and had a sweet, melting, lively meeting.
 
 136 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 "2d. We held a prayer-meeting. The power of 
 God was much felt, so that some cried out with flow- 
 ing tears. I spoke to the Catholics about this place. 
 They were shy, but acquiesced in the things spoken. 
 Oh, how they fear their teachers ; yea, more than 
 they fear God !" 
 
 At Roundwood a man said he would go all the 
 way to Wicklow, next Sunday, to hear them. At 
 Newton-Mount-Kennedy they rode up and down, 
 with their caps on, till the people gathered. Then 
 they returned to Rosanna, where they preached in 
 the morning of the Lord's Day, and then " off to 
 Wicklow." Speaking of the tears which flowed at 
 the meeting here on the Monday, Mr Ouseley 
 expresses his gratification at seeing so much feeling 
 in a town ; " for in towns, generally, people are so 
 hardened that little impression is made, or if made, 
 it soon disappears." He judged by symptoms among 
 the less restrained inhabitants of solitary houses or 
 small villages. At the market at Rathdrum they 
 had a kindly multitude of Catholic hearers; and 
 some months later, he met one in Athy, who had 
 been awakened there. 
 
 The next name mentioned is one that has taken 
 its place in the permanent respect of Irish Methodists, 
 because of the useful life and blessed death of one 
 of the members of the family, Fossey Tackaberry, 
 who became a minister, and of whom a memoir was 
 written by the Rev. Robert Huston. 
 
 " 7th December. We came to Friend Tackaberry's. 
 When I had just got into the little parlour, and 
 stood a short time, a young woman came in, and 
 looked earnestly at me, then went down and looked
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 137 
 
 at Mr Graham, and then said to her mother, ' That 
 man above is him that I remember to have seen in 
 my dream. I saw two,' said she, ' but I recognised 
 his face particularly ; and methought that he did me 
 good, and that many were blessed.' So it was. That 
 night I preached, and God so blessed the Word that 
 there was a cry and a shaking. One Catholic girl 
 cried out, and professed to have got some comfort. I 
 heard that she joined the Society afterwards. The 
 family of the house were much blessed, and I trust 
 much good was done. 
 
 " 8th December. This morning we had a most 
 blessed meeting at morning prayer. From this we rode 
 into Arklow Street, one of those towns where there 
 was a dreadful battle with the rebels. Many came 
 to hear us, and heard with patience. From this we 
 came near the seaside to the rock. Many came 
 out, and some from Arklow, and we had a powerful 
 breaking. To God be all the praise. 
 
 " 9th December. We rode into Arklow market, 
 and took our stand in a convenient place. Some of the 
 Catholic women and fishermen were cursing us ; and, 
 when we began to preach, some of them began to be 
 rude ; but some of the soldiers slapped them in the 
 face. Another of them was going to strip off his 
 coat to fight, but he was soon glad to be gone ; so 
 that we had a peaceable hearing, and the tears flowed 
 from some. A young clergyman stood a while, and 
 conceiving that our doctrine would drive to despair, 
 he wanted the churchwarden to help him to stop us ; 
 but the churchwarden would not. Then he applied 
 to others to little purpose ; then, with an officer, he 
 went to the colonel to obtain aid. The colonel told
 
 138 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 him he would not have anything to do with us, and 
 advised him to do so too. Then, when none would 
 help him, he sent us word by a friend not to come 
 again, or that we would not get off so well. I wrote 
 to him a gentle, explanatory letter, as I believed him 
 to be a well-intentioned man from some accounts I 
 had of him, and enclosed a couple of the little papers 
 I had been giving out amongst the people. I heard 
 that a Catholic woman was so deeply convinced of 
 sin that day that she could not rest, and was eager 
 that we should come back again. On the whole, I 
 hope good seed has been sown. This night we 
 preached at Sister Fearn's. We had a blessed time. 
 The Catholic girl lives here, and was now again 
 greatly moved. A man said, after hearing, that there 
 was no use in delaying any longer, and that for his 
 part he would begin and serve the Lord. We had 
 much praying, and I trust it will not be forgotten. 
 
 " 10th. Came to Redna. As I was passing 
 through the village of Aghrim, I rode up to the 
 people's doors, spoke to them here and there, gave 
 them some little tracts, and invited them to preach- 
 ing. As I went along the road, I called at a house 
 to invite them. The man shut the door, and said 
 he would have nothing to do with any such. He 
 was a Catholic, and rather decent-looking. I gently 
 bid him not shut the door, and spoke a few things 
 to him in Catholic expressions, and a little Irish. 
 He got quite calm and good-natured. He said it 
 was all true, and gave me his blessing with the 
 tears in his eyes. What a blessing is patience and 
 gentleness in a gospel minister ! This night, many 
 came out; the Lord was very present. The people
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 139 
 
 around here were rather wild, ignorant, careless 
 ones ; but the Holy One this night thawed down 
 their cold hearts, and an appearance of good was 
 among them. Some said, they found comfort and 
 love. 
 
 " llth. We came to Hacketstown, expecting to 
 find a market, but there was none. We preached 
 in the house this night. 
 
 " 12th [Sunday]. This morning again, and after 
 mass, the street beiug full of Catholics, we went 
 out to the cross where the people stood. Brother 
 Graham is unwell, and I felt very weak ; so that my 
 whole frame trembled as if fear had assaulted me. 
 My feet were scarce able to carry me, till I came to 
 the place. They cleared the way for us very quietly, 
 and so soon as I gave out my text, Galatians vi. 14, 
 ' God forbid that I should glory,' I got quite 
 strong. They listened with the deepest attention, 
 but a few ran away. As I was speaking, I saw the 
 congregation moving and looking frightened, yet 
 unwilling to go away. Their priest, it seems, was 
 coming toward us, but he quietly passed by ; and 
 so all was easy. When I came to explain the nature 
 of the Cross, as it respected our self-denial and 
 every duty on our part, and the benefits flowing 
 to us through Christ crucified on the part of God, 
 who thus poureth His benefits upon us ; and also 
 when I showed the inutility of any other cross, or sign 
 of the cross, the people stood amazed, their faces 
 turned pale, and the tears came down gushing. 
 Brother Graham exhorted after, and all heard as 
 if for life. Then we retired with the heavy weight 
 departed, and our minds eased after thus bearing
 
 140 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 our cross, in declaring the counsel of God amongst 
 such crowds of uncultivated beings, where a little 
 before war and destruction had been. This night 
 again we preached in the house, and had a lively 
 meeting, so that we were wet with perspiration. I 
 hope good was done in this place. Brother and 
 Sister Condell were very kind to us. The Lord 
 bless them for ever ! I had an account after, from 
 this little town, that the priest greatly persecuted 
 the people that had been to hear us." . . . 
 
 " 15th. We came to Gorey. When the people 
 saw the men with the black caps on horseback, they 
 ran in. crowds, and we preached to them in the 
 underpart of the Market House. They were very 
 attentive, and at night again the Court House was 
 well filled, and with a decent-looking congregation, 
 such as one would imagine to be calculated to do 
 good neither too grand nor too mean ; for the great 
 folks seldom stoop to the religion of the Cross, and 
 the rabble are so used to wickedness and blindness, 
 that they disregard it. I preached from 1 John ii. 
 12, 'I write unto you, little children, because your 
 sins are forgiven.' The tears flowed down many 
 faces, and some lifted up the voice, and cried out 
 whilst we were at prayer. I thought it a pity we 
 had not time to stay a night or two more with 
 them." . . . 
 
 " 18th. We preached in the street of Fern?. 
 The people here seem as if they had no souls, they 
 are so very careless. When Brother Graham, after 
 singing, began to preach, there was a good number ; 
 but he had not been long speaking till the most of 
 them dropped off, walking away quite insensible.
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 141 
 
 After he had done, I roared out against the ungodly- 
 town in such a way that I greatly strained myself; 
 but we left our warning with them in the name of 
 the Lord. From thence we rode on, after preaching, 
 into the market of Newtownbarry. Here the people 
 surrounded us in multitudes, and heard with flowing 
 tears and quietness. I gave them some tracts, for 
 which they were very thankful. I was now very 
 hoarse indeed. I did not get over the effect of this 
 day's exertion for many days. 
 
 " 19th. This, Sabbath, morning, the preaching- 
 room was well filled with attentive hearers. Brother 
 Graham preached from Rev. xxii. 17, 'And the 
 Spirit and the Bride say, Come.' The power of the 
 Lord greatly attended His Word, so that every heart 
 was penetrated, and some fell on their knees ; so that 
 we had to cease preaching, and go to prayer. We 
 had a sweet time. After church I preached in the 
 street to a numerous audience, from a clause in the 
 Creed, 1 1 believe in the communion of saints,' 
 wherein I endeavoured to lead the people to look 
 at the character of both saint and sinner ; the com- 
 munion of each, and their end. All was peace and 
 tranquillity. They said, the great man of the town 
 said he would stop us ; but he happened to ride by 
 us, heard for a little, and then quietly rode away. 
 This night, again, I preached to a very crowded 
 house. We had a good time, and I hope good was 
 done. We had many Catholics out this night. I 
 heard of one and her daughters, whose husband is a 
 thoughtless Protestant. I went out to their house, 
 and was well received by them all. I prayed with 
 them, after much conversation, and all seemed very
 
 142 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 powerfully affected, and promised to turn from sin 
 to the Lord." . . . 
 
 " 25th. This morning, we had a very blessed 
 meeting, and after breakfast rode away for Ross. 
 As we went along, we met, near the town, some of 
 the people coming from the mass. They were very 
 mad and bitter, particularly against Brother Graham, 
 thinking that he had been formerly a priest. Some of 
 them crossed themselves so soon as they saw him, 
 and some more cursed. We met several parcels of 
 them on our way to Ross. I spoke mostly to them 
 all, and they were very thankful. None were inso- 
 lent, excepting two or three drunken creatures; but a 
 few soft words made them silent, and, to appearance, 
 ashamed. This night, we preached at the house 
 in Ross, and the Word seemed to go with power. A 
 girl, after she went home, met the clergyman in the 
 house, and burst out. into bitter crying, saying, '0 
 sir, you have known me so long, and why did you not 
 speak to me, and tell me my danger ? ' She cried 
 most of the night." . . . 
 
 " 28th. We went to the streets of Kilkenny, it 
 being the market-day. As we were singing, the 
 people ran forward ; and after a little, some drunkeu 
 ones of them began to make a noise ; but none being 
 present to suppress it in the bud, it became almost 
 general, and they gave the word, one to another, to 
 keep it up; so that they entirely drowned Brother 
 Graham's voice, notwithstanding his exertions. 
 They began to throw some dirt, and then to crowd in 
 upon us. The horses began to plunge, so we had to 
 alight. Some gentlemen came up, and one of them 
 took a stick, and chased them away a little, and then
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 143 
 
 very mildly advised us to desist, and leave them, as 
 they would not hear. We thanked them, mounted 
 our horses, and rode away, the multitude running 
 and hallooing after us, and flinging odd stones ; but 
 we missed the right road, and had to turn back, and 
 we again came amongst them. They set up a shout, 
 and after a little began to shower stones and dirt 
 upon us and our horses, crying out, ' Will you ever 
 come here to preach again ? ' We turned into the 
 barrack, and so escaped the fulness of their fury. 
 Brother Graham escaped unhurt, but I got several 
 bruises. One stone particularly hit me on the chin, 
 though it did no further damage than raise a lump ; 
 the others made my flesh black, but, to God be 
 the praise, I received no material injury. The 
 town mayor came, and some of the officers walked 
 with us, till we got near the outskirts of the town ; 
 and hardly could the people be kept from murdering 
 us on the spot, in his, the mayor's, presence ; for they 
 perceived he had no armed man nor any weapon 
 with him ; but we rode off, and while I was paying 
 the turnpike, some of them from behind a ditch 
 aimed at me with stones, one of which struck me on 
 the back of my head, but yet not so as to hurt me. 
 I rode away rejoicing, and feeling the words of the 
 apostle, * that I may know Him, and the fellowship 
 of His sufferings.' I felt also real pity for their 
 blindness, and thus judged. The poor things believed 
 they had the devils among them, and they considered 
 that they ought to kill them whilst they had them. 
 I wrote afterwards to the Catholic bishop a com- 
 plaint. I fear he did not heed it, but a day is 
 at hand. We rode into Lough lin Bridge, and
 
 144 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 preached there that night, and had a lively, refreshing 
 time. 
 
 " 29th. We rode into Athy, and this night 
 preached in the house. The power of the Lord 
 attended His Word, and some began to cry out; and 
 others were very much disgusted. One of these I 
 reasoned with after, and he took it in good part. 
 He was a Calvinist young man, and thought we were 
 endeavouring to work on the passions of the people 
 mechanically, and by our own exertions ; but after 
 a little conversation, he saw things in another view, 
 and saw that no rational exertion could be blamed 
 when an immortal soul was the subject in question." 
 
 " 16th January 1803 [Sunday]. In the street, 
 after prayers, the Catholic people came forward and 
 kicked a football, expecting to cause a riot, and hurt 
 or hinder us ; but the Deputy Sovereign took a stick, 
 and ran after some of them. He took the ball, and 
 cut it, and we had peace for a while. It seems 
 the priest here set them mad against us, so that they 
 would hurt us if they could. A great number of 
 them stood afar off, and still made a noise. Some of 
 the Orangemen, seeing it, went together, and moved 
 towards them. When they saw it, they ran away 
 in such confusion as to be tumbling over each other ; 
 so we had no more noise with them, and some heard 
 very attentively. At night, again, the house was 
 well filled, and the power of God was amongst the 
 people. Several Catholic girls particularly came out 
 to hear, and were deeply affected." . . . 
 
 "20th. Preached in the market to a great and 
 attentive crowd, mostly Catholics. The markets, or 
 streets, but chiefly the markets, are the only places
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 145 
 
 where we can get a good hearing from these. They 
 are so much afraid of their priests that, even on the 
 Sabbath-day, they will scarcely stand even in the 
 streets, lest the priest should come on them. 
 
 "21st. We intended to have gone this morning, 
 but Brother Graham had to keep his bed, being very 
 sick. This night, I preached in the house. The 
 Lord powerfully reached the hearts of many. There 
 was a stranger present, a Roman Catholic young 
 man. It was the first time he had heard preaching. 
 He was greatly affected, and after preaching came 
 with me to a friend's house, where I spoke and prayed 
 with him. I met him again before I went to bed, 
 and the poor fellow wanted to give me a bottle of 
 wine, the best mark of his friendship. ' Oh,' said he, 
 ' our priests do not half mind us, nor tell us the right 
 truth. They are like a shepherd that would lazily 
 stand on a hill, and just cast a look over the 
 sheep on the plains, but would not come nigh 
 them.'" . . . 
 
 "23d [Sunday]. I met the class in the morning. 
 After prayers, when the people were coming from 
 church and mass, I rode along into the street, 
 Brother Graham being too feeble. After singing, 
 and numbers having come forward, I gave out my 
 text, Galatians vi. 14, ; God forbid that I should 
 glory.' The people began to hear with great atten- 
 tion, and wonderful power seemed to reach us all ; 
 so that our tears began to flow down together. Bat 
 some were quite displeased. One came up and in- 
 sultingly asked, What the college I came from ? 
 
 One of the army an officer, I suppose turned him 
 away, and another of the soldiers gave him a kick. 
 
 K
 
 H6 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 Then he walked off. Another said, ' How dare he 
 stand to talk to us ? or catch us, and we coming out 
 of our chapel ? But we will soon tear him down.' 
 * No,' said a soldier that overheard him ; i not while we 
 are in town.' Another came cursing and bravadoing. 
 He had once been a rebel of some influence ; but he 
 perceived that he could not get on as he would wish, 
 so he walked away up the street. A soldier followed 
 him, and when he considered it far enough away, so 
 as not to disturb the congregation with him, he 
 hastened up to him, attacked and beat him, and told 
 him why he did it. However, the congregation per- 
 ceived it, and many ran up. So I closed the discourse, 
 and gave out in the street that I would preach this 
 night from Matthew xvi. 18, 'And L-say also unto 
 thee, That thou art Peter.' After ceasing in the 
 street we repaired to the preaching-house. Brother 
 Graham preached, and I prayed, and we had a good 
 time. At night the house was quite filled with 
 people. I preached according to promise, and truly 
 we had a very solemn, melting, watering time ; whilst 
 I chiefly insisted and proved negatively that man 
 could not be, but Christ Himself was, the Rock, the 
 Foundation, the chief Corncr-Stone ; and that the true 
 Church was those in whom Christ was received by 
 the Holy Ghost those who were born again, and 
 had Christ formed in them the hope of glory. After 
 this we had a very blessed prayer-meeting. About 
 eight o'clock, many were present; and I gave them 
 an exhortation, and at prayer every heart was melting. 
 After all the labours of the day, I cannot say I felt 
 much weariness ; so doth the Lord support me, thanks 
 to His name ! And what is still more astonishing, at
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 147 
 
 every meeting I am generally wet with perspiration, 
 and yet I am not worn out." 
 
 They traversed the midland districts of Ireland, 
 and their course was a simple repetition of the same 
 labours, interruptions, and encouragements. They 
 were frequently joined by the Circuit preachers ; and 
 at Clara we find both Mr Wood and Mr Lougheed 
 in the street with them. After speaking of meetings 
 at Moate, and of the conversion of a Eoman Catholic 
 servant maid, Mr Ouseley says, " How good it is to 
 go into the kitchen, and instruct the poor neglected 
 servants ! " 
 
 On the 19th of February, at Athlone, he writes : 
 " We rode into Athlone. After we got in, it began 
 to rain ; but, hoping it would not be heavy, we rode 
 into the market to preach. When we were going to 
 fix our horses, for the purpose of speaking, the rain 
 began to fall as a torrent. However, after a little, 
 it abated; and the people perceiving we were preachers, 
 began to be rather insolent. But when we began to 
 speak, they came running ; and the force of truth 
 was such that they stood amazed, and were quite 
 charmed. I spoke till covered with perspiration, 
 and after me came Brothers Graham and Wood. 
 They stood as satisfied in all the rain as if they were 
 in a preaching-house. A carriage was passing by, 
 full of ladies, and one of them put out her head, and 
 was not at all ashamed to put out her tongue, and 
 make wry faces, as a mark of her dislike to have the 
 gospel preached ; but the poor sent their thousand 
 blessings with us as we were going away. Even 
 those who were at first insolent, and the drunk- 
 ards, did the same. I believe that the rain, in
 
 148 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 spite of the umbrellas, wet some of us through our 
 clothes." 
 
 A few days later, at " Friend Watson's," he began 
 to speak to a girl about fifteen, the child of Methodist 
 parents, who having been morally brought up, knew of 
 no harm she had done, and seemed altogether careless. 
 He told her how our Lord had taught, that we must 
 be born again ; and, after, a while, the child sought 
 for mercy, and while he prayed for her she was made 
 happy. We find them riding, on a very blustery 
 Saturday, into some market that is not named, where 
 they sought the most sheltered place, and preached to 
 the people. On the next day, after having preached 
 indoors, they found the people in the street very un- 
 willing to hear ; for the priest had collected their 
 papers and burned them, and warned the people at their 
 peril not to go near them. Whereupon Mr Ouseley 
 thought it well to try something that would make 
 them feel. Giving out the text, " Howbeit, in vain 
 do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the com- 
 mandments of men," he made his voice reach the 
 people, at least, in the houses on both sides of the 
 street, and discussed the doctrines of Romanism ; 
 such as supererogation, purgatory, masses, anointings, 
 prayers for the dead, and transubstantiation, con- 
 trasting them with the teaching of Holy Scripture, 
 and insisting upon the great doctrines of salvation, 
 upon repentance and faith in Christ, and the cleansing 
 of the conscience and the heart, upon love to God and 
 love to man, evidenced in keeping the commandments 
 of God, arid a holy life. He afterwards heard that 
 this sermon had been very useful even to some Pro- 
 testants who had a great leaning to Romanism.
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 149 
 
 On returning to the north, they pursued their 
 course as usual. Under the date of March the 28th, 
 he writes at Mrs Robinson's : 
 
 "29th. We rode to the Quarterly Meeting of 
 Smithborough. As we rode along, Brother Barber 
 showed me a little cabin, where had dwelt a poor 
 woman, a Catholic, who when sick a few days before 
 her death (which happened about three weeks since), 
 desired those around her to send for one of the 
 Methodists to come and speak to her. They asked 
 her, Would she not have the priest to anoint her? 
 She answered, ' No, I don't want him.' Brother 
 Barber, having heard it, went to see her. She was 
 very weak. He asked her, Did she know anything 
 of repentance ? ' Yes,' replied she ; l and more 
 than repentance. The Lord God has pardoned all 
 my sins, and filled my heart with His love. Glory to 
 His name!' Being astonished at such an answer 
 from a poor Catholic, and, as he thought, an ignorant 
 woman, he asked her, How did she obtain ail this ? 
 She again replied, ' The Lord Himself hath done it 
 for His mercy's sake.' He found that she had heard 
 the gospel preached perhaps in the streets also, as 
 we preached very often in the streets of Monaghan, 
 convenient to where she lived and she had been at 
 some prayer-meetings. I hope many, very many of 
 these poor creatures shall reap eternal advantage 
 from the street-preaching, though now we know it 
 not. He asked her, Would he pray with her ? 'No,' 
 said she, ' but sing ; I wish to sing, or hear His praises 
 sung.' She died in a few days. This occurrence, I 
 think, produced new emotions and encouragements 
 in my heart to go on, to cry aloud and spare not, to
 
 ISO LIFE OF GIDEON OVSELEY. 
 
 speak everywhere, and not cease or slack my hands 
 at all. I preached in the open air, to a congregation 
 that we could not get a house to contain, from 
 Matthew xiv. 35, 36, ' And when the men of that 
 place had knowledge of Him.' Our children in the 
 gospel, and friends in this country, were rejoiced once 
 more to see us. We had a very powerful and blessed 
 watering season ; and the presence of the Holy One 
 was greatly manifested all along in the love-feast. 
 Towards the close we had a prayer-meeting, some 
 crying for mercy, and some set at liberty." 
 
 The last entries in his journal, for this twelve- 
 month, are : 
 
 "April llth. We rode into and preached in the 
 market of Dungannon to an exceedingly large and 
 deeply attentive multitude, but we were interrupted 
 by a recruiting party, whose sergeant had led them, 
 by the direction of an officer, as he said, to the 
 very horses' heads, and there continued a while with 
 fife and drum ; but after a while he was called off, 
 and then we got leave to go on peaceably, and to 
 finish with satisfaction to ourselves and the people. 
 We preached in the house at night, and the Lord 
 visited us with His sweet blissful showers from on 
 high." 
 
 " 14th [Sunday]. I met the class in the morning. 
 Brother Graham preached at about ten, I preached in 
 the street at about two, and he in the house in the 
 evening. This was a Sabbath of blessings within and 
 abroad, but I think we had the most blessed and power- 
 ful time in the streets; and I always am of opinion 
 that God is more honoured, and mankind more profited, 
 by occasional out-preaching than by house-preaching.
 
 FURTHER LABOURS WITH MR GRAHAM. 151 
 
 I wish all the preachers would duly consider this. 
 Though it is a cross, yet it can bear to be looked 
 back at again. And how in the great day ! After 
 these exertions for the past week, we both were 
 nearly worn down ; but, oh, how gracious is our God, 
 who so soon revives us again ! 
 
 " 15th. We had a great congregation at Brother 
 Mark's, among whom were several Catholics. The 
 day was fine a clean, open place and the Lord 
 gave us a good time."
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 CLOSE OF THE UNITED LABOURS OF GRAHAM AND 
 OUSELEY. 
 
 ON the 30th of April 1803, Mr Graham relates to 
 Dr Coke a new experience which had befallen him 
 and his comrade, while on a tour of six weeks in the 
 north. In the market of Stewardstown they could 
 hardly restrain the poor Roman Catholics from mak- 
 ing a collection, and displeased them by declining 
 their offer. In May of the same year Mr Ouseley 
 writes from Oldcastle (" Methodist Magazine," for 
 1803, p. 423), confessing that, from weakness and 
 hoarseness, he had been afraid of the labours of the 
 Sabbath in Cookstown ; but he found that Roman 
 Catholics had come three or four miles to hear, 
 and, when he commenced to preach, the power of 
 God seemed to reach every heart. Thence he went 
 to Coal Island, preached in the rain, and again in 
 the house to crowds ; and at the close was stronger 
 than in the morning. The next day, in the Charle- 
 mont Circuit, he was feeble, but his Master gave him 
 success. 
 
 In passing through Cavan, he learned that a man 
 was about to be executed. " I visited the prisoner 
 with two of our Church ministers, and, when they left,
 
 CLOSE OF UNITED LABOURS. 153 
 
 I still continued with him ; and while he was hang- 
 ing, I lifted up my voice, and exhorted the people, 
 both in English and Irish." 
 
 At this time Mr Graham was laid up of influenza. 
 
 The journal of Mr Ouseley for 1804 is fragmen- 
 tary, being little more than notes of where they went, 
 and what they did. 
 
 " 4th August. I looked at the town, and upon 
 going through the poor part, the words of my Redeemer 
 came into my mind with some force, ' To the poor 
 the gospel is preached.' Passing through, I spoke 
 to some, who heard with gratitude ; and that evening 
 I preached in a place where my voice could be heard 
 by two little streets or lanes of these poor benighted 
 Catholics. Many of them came out and heard. 
 Some walked by, careless. The Word seemed blunted, 
 and as if ineffectual, rather evaporating than fasten- 
 ing on the people ; yet some few did weep. A 
 drunken soldier disturbed us, which distracted the 
 attention of the hearers for a good while; yet I 
 trust good was done ; for the next morning, going 
 through the street again, I found the people very 
 friendly. Spoke a little to them again, for which 
 they appeared very thankful. 
 
 " 5th. This evening, early, came into the market 
 of Newtownbarry. We rode into a convenient part, 
 and hundreds flocked around us. The Word seemed 
 to reach them with power. Brother Graham preached 
 from Psalm ix. 17, 'The wicked shall be turned 
 into hell,' &c. When he finished, I began ; and then 
 a colonel came and requested that we should remove 
 to another part. We did so. The people followed 
 us, and I spoke from part of the Catholic " Christian
 
 154 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Doctrine," that, without faith, hope, charity, and good 
 works, we cannot be saved. As I enlarged on this 
 point, we all began to weep together. The spirit of 
 grace and supplications was poured out on the whole 
 congregation. An old poor Romanist came up to 
 me, weeping aloud, and grasped my hand in his, and 
 prayed, and poured out his flowing tears. He 
 followed us down to our lodgings, and again wept in 
 an agony. My poor heart was revived and watered, 
 my hope invigorated, that we would have a great 
 work. My gratitude to my God greatly increased, 
 and prayer to Him that thus He would be with us, 
 and then, what could stand before us? Such a time 
 in the streets among Romanists I did not see (that I 
 can remember) these four years ; with such greedi- 
 ness did they run for our papers. I hope this day 
 will never be forgotten." 
 
 On the 26th of March 1804 he wrote to Mr 
 Butterworth, the well-known member of Parliament, 
 speaking gratefully of a pamphlet issued by the Rev. 
 Joseph Benson under the title of " The Inspector of 
 Methodism Inspected." The Rev. Dr Hayes, Rector 
 of Killashandra, and a Fellow of Trinity College, 
 Dublin, had published an attack upon the missionaries, 
 entitled " Methodism Inspected." The charges he 
 brought against Methodism were that it taught the 
 doctrine of assurance, or the conscious experience of 
 the pardoning love of God by the operation of the 
 Holy Spirit upon the mind, that the missionaries 
 preached in the street on horseback, and wore 
 " black coifs, or skullcaps, like the Puritans for- 
 merly," and by so doing courted persecution, and 
 cast that which was holy unto dogs. The " Chris-
 
 CLOSE OF UNITED LABOURS. 155 
 
 tian Observer " took up those accusations, both 
 against Methodism and the missionaries, and this 
 drew out the reply from the pen of Mr Benson. 
 Graham and Ouseley felt that, even upon earth, they 
 had powerful friends ; and the latter gratefully says 
 that the " Inspector Inspected " was much approved, 
 even by the clergy. 
 
 In the same letter he speaks of Mr Graham's health 
 as declining, but, as to himself, states that the Lord 
 seems to have given him bones of iron and brass. 
 His greatest trial appears to have been violent per- 
 spiration in preaching, but he had not been a single 
 day confined to bed, and was better and stronger 
 than before he set out on his mission five years 
 previously. Weary at night, he was as fresh in the 
 morning as ever. He then proceeds to say that ' 
 the Catholics are more friendly than ever. " In the 
 markets they crowd around us, because there they 
 cannot be watched by the priests. They are ready 
 to trample upon one another in striving to get the 
 tracts." The priests in Munster are much more 
 hostile than those in Connaught. In Limerick, on 
 a market-day, he went through the streets, having his 
 pockets full of papers, standing now here and now 
 there, reading with an audible voice an Irish hymn, or 
 some striking paragraph, speaking for a few minutes, 
 giving away his papers ; and so passing on, he was 
 received with looks of kindness and love. In a little 
 town he rode up to door after door, and gave them 
 the papers. Mr Graham writing about this time, also 
 to Mr Butterworth (" Methodist Magazine" for 1805, 
 p. 383), reports the re-establishment of his health,
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 and states that in the little town of Boyle one hun- 
 dred persons had been brought to the knowledge of 
 God. During the winter they had preached in the 
 markets, in frost, and hail, and rain, and found 
 magistrates and officers more favourable than in 
 previous years. " Many wonder we are alive, con- 
 sidering the labour we go through." A letter given 
 by Mr Langtree (page 143), relates among other 
 striking incidents of a visit to Drogheda, that they 
 had a special sermon preached by Ouseley to beg- 
 gars in the Tholsel. His text was Dives and Laz- 
 arus. The beggars stood next to the preachers, and 
 a vast crowd outside. Such showers of tears, he 
 says, had not been shed in any other of their meet- 
 ings. They then made the beggars pass into the 
 Tholsel, giving a penny or a halfpenny to each one ; 
 but they were seized with a panic, some one having 
 suggested that they were being caught in order to be 
 sent on board a ship in the harbour. " The children 
 began to squall, the men to bustle, and the women 
 to have the heart-beat, all wanting to get out." 
 However, when they were at last let go, they parted 
 from the missionaries, blessing them. Mr Ouseley 
 proceeds to mention happy labour at Carlow, bearing 
 repeated testimony to the usefulness of Mr Averell 
 and Lorenzo Dow. 
 
 Hitherto the missionary life of Mr Ouseley had 
 been prosecuted in such close connection with his 
 well-beloved Charles Graham, that the two seemed 
 to be not only associated but identified. They had 
 coursed all Ireland through, as perhaps no two men 
 ever did before, travelling uncounted thousands of
 
 CLOSE OF UNITED LABOURS, 157 
 
 miles. The same hospitable homes had bidden them 
 welcome, and the same execrations driven them 
 away. The same missiles had whizzed about their 
 ears, and the same blessings lighted on their heads. 
 They called the converts gathered out of the world 
 u our " children, and the converts hailed them almost 
 as if they had been one and the same person. The 
 words of Mr Campbell, "We never heard of a jealousy, 
 or a jar, between them," are to be taken strictly. It 
 does not appear that any one ever did. When they 
 were separated at the Conference of 1805, many 
 thought that, after the exposures of the past six years, 
 they were both far spent, especially Mr Graham. Even 
 he, however, had yet nearly twenty years of fruitful 
 toil before him, and Ouseley thirty-four. Neither of 
 them had been worn down by study or labour before 
 their frames reached full maturity ; hence damages 
 were soon repaired. 
 
 During the six years, the Methodist Societies in 
 Ireland had increased from 16,277 members to 
 23,321. The calamities of the Rebellion had prepared 
 the people to hear and feel the Word, and the Lord 
 had blessed the preachers generally with a large 
 measure of His Holy Spirit. It is remarkable with 
 what cordiality, not to say fervour, the ministers on 
 the regular Circuits welcomed the occasional visits 
 of the missionaries, rejoicing in the power they had 
 over the people, and setting themselves to gather in 
 and permanently shepherd those impressed by their 
 preaching. We do not mean that none disliked 
 such departures from " regular " Methodist routine, 
 as their proceedings involved ; for there will always
 
 153 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 be men who cannot distinguish between the extra- 
 ordinary and the irregular, just as, on the other hand, 
 there will always be men who think that, because 
 they are irregular they are extraordinary. In the 
 years of which we are speaking, however, we find 
 no trace of coldness on the part of any one.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LABOURS IN CONNECTION WITH MR WILLIAM 
 HAMILTON. 
 
 AT the Conference of 1805 the two yoke-fellows 
 were separated, and Mr Ouseley was sent forth in 
 connection with his dear old friend William Hamilton, 
 whose letter in a former chapter throws clear light 
 both on the spirit of their joint labours and on its 
 general features. Mr Graham was appointed with 
 a new colleague, Mr Andrew Taylor, and four other 
 missionaries were employed. Mr Langtree mentions 
 the trial of a man named Caulfield, from Granard, 
 for throwing dirt in Mr Ouseley's face. He was 
 convicted and imprisoned. The morning after the 
 trial, Mr Ouseley was expected to preach, at six 
 o'clock, in the chapel; but Mr Langtree, an hour 
 earlier, heard singing in the street, and found him 
 surrounded by a number of labourers, who were 
 standing with their spades waiting to be hired. He 
 was preaching to them in their own tongue, and 
 after doing so, went to his congregation in the 
 chapel ; and he adds, " Often, in the course of a day's 
 ride with him, have I witnessed the same aptness 
 to teach." The same author quotes a letter of Mr 
 Ouseley, rejoicing in the appearance of a revival in
 
 160 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 Dublin, and especially upon the manifest blessing 
 resting on the labours of Lorenzo Dow, of whom he 
 speaks as " rude in speech, yet not in knowledge," and 
 says that even St Paul might have been seen ranging 
 through vast countries, poor-looking and sometimes 
 ragged and starved in appearance ; and he doubts 
 whether, if he came to Ireland, and the people did 
 not know who he was, they would all receive him, 
 even though they saw the work of G-od prospering 
 in his hands. In a letter from Granard, on the 
 8th of March 1806, addressed to Dr Coke, and signed 
 by both the missionaries, they mention that, after 
 preaching at Cootehill, a man came to speak to 
 them privately, stating that he and his wife had 
 gone to confession the day previously, but that the 
 priest would not receive the dues, " unless they added 
 u hank of yarn." He also stated that the wife of a 
 neighbour having died in childbirth, her husband 
 and he went to the priest to get him "to do the rites 
 of divinity for her," that is, to say five masses for 
 the repose of her soul. The husband, not having 
 paid as promptly as the priest thought right, he 
 called out to him in the open congregation, and said 
 he would excommunicate him if he did not pay him 
 five-and-fivepence quickly. After the poor fellow 
 had received counsel, he went down on his knees, 
 and requested the prayers and blessings of the mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 In 1806, Dr Adam Clarke wrote at great length 
 to Mr Ouseley, stating that, in the Committee of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, the utility of 
 printing the Scriptures in the Irish language had 
 been seriously discussed, some alleging that it was
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 161 
 
 altogether unnecessary, and supporting their opinion 
 by letters from clergymen and other persons of 
 authority. One sentence is very striking, " I am 
 satisfied that any language in a civilised country, 
 that has to cope with another at the same place, 
 must soon perish if the Scriptures do not exist in it." 
 The vitality of the Keltic language among the small 
 population of Wales, immediately joining the great 
 population of England, as contrasted with the rapid- 
 ity of its disappearance in the more numerous popu- 
 lation of Ireland, separated by sea from England, is 
 one of the most striking illustrations of the effect of 
 the Bible and preaching on the life of a language. 
 In a Roman Catholic country, the want of the Bible 
 in the house, and of the mother-tongue in worship, 
 leaves a new language, if it has superior prestige, an 
 open field for speedy victory. We need not say 
 what the reply of Mr Ouseley would be to such an 
 inquiry. Dr Clarke had also raised some questions 
 as to the legends and superstitions of Ireland, and 
 Mr Ouseley gave his opinion very decidedly that, 
 in substance, they were more ancient than the in- 
 troduction of Christianity into the country, and were, 
 really, but variations of the previously existing 
 heathenism. 
 
 The following incidents, furnished by the Rev. 
 James Tobias, belong partly to a later period, but 
 are inserted together : " About the year 1805, 
 when Mr Ouseley was associated with William 
 Hamilton, also of racy speech, he visited Ennis- 
 corthy, which was then included in the Wicklow 
 Circuit, and on a market-day preached, the upper step 
 of the stone stairs of the market-house being his 
 
 L
 
 1 62 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 pulpit. In his discourse, which was pretty quietly 
 listened to, he to use a phrase of his own ' gently 
 opened up the errors of Popery,' closing with a pro- 
 mise to return, and preach there again on the next 
 market-day. All his gentleness, however, did not 
 avail. Some of his sayings reached the ears of the 
 priests, and their ire was aroused ; and his friends 
 in the town learned that so strong a feeling had been 
 excited against him as to make it dangerous for him 
 to fulfil his intention. When he arrived in the 
 town, the friends sought to dissuade him from the 
 attempt ; but his answer was, * Children, what 
 would you have me do? Is it not my Master's 
 work ? Am I not pledged to do it ? Would you 
 break my heart by hindering me ? ' Opposition was 
 then given up ; and some of them, with fear and 
 trembling, but with many prayers, accompanied him 
 to the ground. He took his stand, put off his hat, 
 assumed his black velvet cap, and, after a few moments 
 spent in silent prayer, commenced to sing. People 
 began to gather round him, and, during the singing 
 of a few verses, were quiet, and apparently attentive, 
 but soon began to be restless and noisy. He then 
 commenced to pray, and quietness for a short time 
 followed ; but presently, as the crowd increased, it 
 became uneasy, and even turbulent. He closed his 
 prayer, and began to preach ; but evidently his audi- 
 ence were not disposed to hear him. Before many 
 sentences had been uttered, missiles began to fly 
 at first, not of a very destructive character, being 
 refuse vegetables, potatoes, turnips, &c. ; but before 
 long, harder materials were thrown brickbats and 
 stones, some of which reached him and inflicted
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 163 
 
 slight wounds. He stopped, and, after a pause, cried 
 out, ' Boys dear, what's the matter with you to-day? 
 Won't you let an old man talk to you a little?' 
 ' We don't want to hear a word out of your old head,' 
 was the prompt reply from one in the crowd. l But 
 I want to tell you what, I think, you would like to 
 hear.' l No, we'll like nothing you can tell us.' 
 1 How do you know ? I want to tell you a story 
 about one you all say you respect and love.' ' Who's 
 that?' l The blessed Virgin.' ' Och, and what do 
 you know about the blessed Virgin?' ' More than 
 you think ; and I'm sure you'll be pleased with what 
 I have to tell you, if you'll only listen to me.' 'Come, 
 then/ said another voice, * let us hear what he has 
 to say about the Holy Mother.' And there was a 
 lull, and the missionary began : * There was once a, 
 young couple to be married, belonging to a little town 
 called Cana. It's away in that country where our 
 blessed Saviour spent a great part of His life among 
 us ; and the decent people whose children were to be 
 married thought it right to invite the blessed Virgin 
 to the wedding-feast, and her blessed Son too, and 
 some of His disciples ; and they all thought it right 
 to come. As they sat at table, the Virgin Mother 
 thought she saw that the wine provided for the 
 entertainment began to run short, and she was 
 troubled lest the decent young people should be 
 shamed before their neighbours ; and so she whispered 
 to her blessed Son, " They have no wine." " Don't 
 let that trouble you, ma'am," said He. And in a 
 minute or two after, she, knowing well what was in 
 His good heart, said to one of the servants that was 
 passing behind them, " Whatsoever He saith unto
 
 164 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 you, do it." Accordingly, by-and-by, our blessed Lord 
 said to another of them I suppose they had passed 
 the word among themselves "Fill those large water- 
 pots with water." (There were six of them standing 
 in a corner of the room, and they held nearly three 
 gallons apiece, for the people of those countries 
 use a great deal of water every day.) And, re- 
 membering the words of the Holy Virgin, they did 
 His bidding, and came back, and said, " Sir, they are 
 full to the brim." " Take some, then, to the master, 
 at the head of the table," He said. And they did so, 
 and the master tasted it, and, lo and behold you ! it 
 was wine, and the best of wine too I And there was 
 plenty of it for the feast, ay, and, it may be, some 
 left to help the young couple setting up house-keep- 
 ing. And all that, you see, came of the servants 
 taking the advice of the blessed Virgin, and doing 
 what she bid them. Now, if she was here among us 
 this day, she would give just the same advice to 
 every one of us, " Whatsoever He saith to you, do 
 it;" and with good reason too, for well she knows 
 there is nothing but love in His heart to us, and 
 nothing but wisdom comes from His lips. And now 
 I'll tell you some of the things He says to us. He 
 says, " Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, 
 I say unto you, will strive to enter in, and shall not 
 be able." And straightway the preacher briefly, but 
 clearly and forcibly, expounded the nature of the gate 
 of life, its straitness, and the dread necessity for 
 pressing into it, winding up with the Virgin's 
 counsel, l Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.' In 
 like manner he explained, and pressed upon his 
 hearers, some other of the weighty words of our
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. i65 
 
 divine Lord, ' Except a man be born of water and 
 of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 God ; ' and, ' If any man will come after me, let him 
 deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow 
 me,' enforcing his exhortation in each instance by 
 the Virgin's counsel to the servants at Cana. l But 
 no,' at last he broke forth, ' no ; with all the love 
 and reverence you pretend for the blessed Virgin, 
 you won't take her advice, but will listen willingly 
 to any drunken schoolmaster that will wheedle you 
 into a public-house, and put mischief and wickedness 
 into your heads.' Here he was interrupted by a voice, 
 which seemed to be that of an old man, exclaiming, 
 1 True for you, true for ye ! If you were tellin' lies 
 all the days of your life, it's the truth you're tellin' 
 now.' And so the preacher got leave to finish his 
 discourse with not a little of good effect. 
 
 " When he was travelling in the north of Ireland 
 one day, about the year 1814 or 1815, in company 
 with the Kev. Henry Deery, as they jogged along 
 on horseback, they heard the voices of young girls 
 blithely singing, and through an open doorway at 
 the roadside saw a group of them in the house, 
 employed in 'scutching' flax \_i.e., stripping off 
 the husk from the fibre ; the former, falling in frag- 
 ments to the ground, is termed ' shows,' or 
 ' shaws ']. Ouseley pulled up, saying, ' Brother 
 Deery, there's work for us here; take hold of my 
 reins ; ' and, quickly alighting, entered the house, 
 taking off his hat, and saying, ' God save you, 
 children.' ' Save you kindly, sir,' was the cheerful 
 response. l What is this you're doing ? ' ' Scutching 
 flax, sir.' 'Scutching flax! what's that for?' 'Ah,
 
 1 66 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 don't you know what flax is, sir ? Sure, it's what 
 your shirt is made of.' ' What my shirt is made of! 
 how can that be ? ' ' Don't you see, sir? ' said one of 
 the elder girls, holding up a ' strick ' (or ' strike ') 
 in plain language, a bunch of flax which had been 
 partially scutched, and showing Mr Ouseley the fibre. 
 1 That's what we do spin into yarn, and the weavers 
 make the yarn into the kind of cloth your shirt is 
 made of.' 'Oh, I see, I see!' said Mr Ouseley; 
 'thank you, my dear. And what is all this lying 
 about the floor ? ' pointing to the heap of chaff which 
 lay at the feet of each of the workers. * Them's the 
 shows, sir.' ' Shows, my dear! and what will you 
 make of them ? ' ' Make of them, sir ? ' and there 
 was a little laugh among the girls. ' Why, nobody 
 could make anything of them.' * And weren't they 
 a part of the flax a while ago ? ' asked he. * To be 
 sure, sir ; but they're good for nothing now, except 
 to be burnt; and a bad fire they make.' 'Oh, I 
 understand, I understand,' said the preacher; and 
 then very solemnly went on: 'And, children dear, 
 just so will the Lord Jesus Christ ' (and here every 
 head was bowed) ' come one day with all His holy 
 nngels, and He will scutch the world, and He will 
 gather together all that is good, every one that is fit 
 for His kingdom, and take them to Himself; and 
 the rest the shows, the chaff He will cast into 
 unquenchable fire ! ' ' The Lord save us ! ' was 
 whispered around. 'Amen!' said the preacher ; 'let 
 us pray.' All were promptly on their knees, while 
 Mr Ouseley, in fervent petitions, pleaded for the sal- 
 vation of the young workers. Rising up, he blessed 
 them in the name of the Lord, mounted his horse,
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 167 
 
 and rode away, leaving them hardly sure that an 
 angel had not visited them." 
 
 About this time the name of Threshers was 
 adopted by those who represented the party of 
 chronic disorder in the country. Mr Ouseley relates 
 in a letter to Mr Langtree, that as he came through 
 the mountains, he was told by the people where he 
 had preached that they were afraid of the Threshers, 
 and that the preachers could not come any more; 
 but " next morning, when the people came together, 
 four or five houses were open to receive us." Thence, 
 without tasting food, he went off to another place 
 and gathered the people, who wept vehemently ; and 
 as he was arranging for places where the preachers 
 from Sligo could stay upon their visit, one Roman 
 Catholic cried out, " Come, sir, two days in the week 
 to my house, and welcome indeed." He says, " On 
 Tuesday last I preached in a fair in the mountains, 
 among the Threshers, and they gave me thousands 
 of blessings." In another letter he mentions that 
 he was getting the young people and children to 
 commit the Holy Scriptures to memory. One boy 
 had repeated part of a chapter, who did not yet 
 know his letters. In a place where ten or twelve 
 llomanists had joined the Society, the priest, a great 
 drunkard, came threatening to curse them, and to 
 make the hair fall off their heads, and when they were 
 dying he would refuse them the " seal of Christ." 
 But when Ouseley came round and ran into their 
 cabins, the poor things sprang towards him with 
 their eyes dancing with joy and affection. As he 
 preached, "Oh, the priest, the priest!" cried one in 
 Irish," why is he hindering us from all this comfort
 
 1 68 LIFE OF GIDEON USE LEY. 
 
 and sweetness?" The next , morning, a large bar a 
 was filled, and it seemed like heaven upon earth. 
 One after another cried out for mercy, and found 
 peace with God. As they were about in equal 
 numbers Protestants and Catholics, one said that 
 11 God is giving us one about of each sort." 
 
 The following " wondrous thing," as he calls it, 
 is in striking contrast with all his own experience. 
 We never find him having visions or manifesta- 
 tions of any particular kind whatever. Mr Langtree, in 
 printing the letter, states that on the 30th of June 
 1834, before doing so, he showed it to Mr Ouseley, 
 who perfectly remembered the whole narrative, stat- 
 ing that the matter made a great noise in the 
 country. Some people declared it could not have 
 been St Peter, but an evil spirit, for " why should 
 he come to a Protestant, and not to ourselves." The 
 priest, however, who was warned, had preached an 
 alarming sermon ; and others said, " Be that as it 
 may, we have got one good sermon by it, at any 
 rate." The tale he tells his friend is as follows : 
 
 " Matthew Rogers, of whom I think I made men- 
 tion in a letter before, told me that on the night in 
 which he was struggling for salvation (a night or 
 two after I was last round), he came out of his bed, 
 and for an hour or two he was in an agony of 
 prayer, his family being asleep. While yet he 
 prayed, with his face to the ground, he saw a light 
 suddenly shining, and conceiving the house had 
 taken fire, lie lifted himself up to see where ; but to 
 his astonishment the house was full of light, and two 
 personages stood by him, one like our Saviour nailed 
 to the cross, looking upward, and two straps tied
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 169 
 
 under His chin, binding a crown of thorns on His 
 head. The other, accosting him, said, l Be not afraid; 
 we are not bad spirits, but good : my name is Peter; 
 I am come with the Lord. Only pray on, and no harm 
 will happen unto you. Go to the Priest Gilboy, and 
 tell him to quit his drinking whisky, and to preach to 
 the people. The priests are destroying, and not doing 
 by their people as they ought.' He replied, having 
 lost all fear, ' Is it not fitter for some of his own 
 flock to warn him than me ? ' To which the appari- 
 tion answered, ( You will have to go yourself.' Rogers 
 again replied, ' But he will not believe me.' Then 
 said he, * Go, and I will give you a token that he 
 will know, and he will believe you. Tell him that 
 he was lately in a passion, pursuing a person who 
 had vexed him ; and when passing over a bridge, his 
 horse stumbled, and threw him over the battlement : 
 he was in danger of being killed, but the Lord pitied 
 and saved him at that time that he might repent ; 
 therefore, go and warn him.' In an instant, while he 
 yet wished to speak more, all vanished. The person 
 on the cross did not speak at all. Eogers is counted 
 a steady, sensible, respectable maiA He did warn 
 the priest, who attempted not to deny the token 
 given him, but said he would die if he would quit 
 the whisky ; and hoped St Peter would not be angry 
 if he should take a little." 
 
 Shortly afterwards, he cries, in the same breath, 
 " More good news : the Romanists have bought the 
 Testaments as fast as the Protestants ; " and then 
 says, " The Threshers have come upon the poor mare, 
 but they have only taken off her four shoes, and the 
 hair of her tail." A Romanist from Killala, who had
 
 i?o LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 heard him preach on the oil and purgatory, came to 
 consult him, took home a Testament, and told him 
 that the priests had been hearing him, though they 
 kept out of sight. Mr Graham Campbell mentions 
 having visited an old woman of eighty-five, in the 
 county of Wexford, sixty-seven years after the period 
 of which we are now writing. She had been passing 
 through the street of Newtownbarry, where Hamilton 
 and Ouseley were preaching. The latter was singing 
 a hymn to the air of Tara's Hall, which attracted her, 
 and she came that evening to hear Mr Ouseley's 
 sermon, and went home to blame her mistress for 
 having " informed the preacher on her," for she 
 declared, " He showed me all that ever I did." 
 Finding, however, that her mistress was innocent, she 
 was convinced that the message had come from God, 
 and through a long lapse of years she adorned the pro- 
 fession of the gospel, and in extreme old age rejoiced 
 in hope of the glory of God. 
 
 Mr Reilly, alluding to the labours of his future 
 colleague about this time, mentions a fact which may 
 stand side by side with that of the " scutchers " 
 related by Mr Tobias. One fine summer's day, Mr 
 Ouseley saw some men cutting peat. He said, " What 
 are you doing, boys ? " " We are cutting turf, sir," 
 was the reply. " Sure, you don't require it this fine 
 weather ? " " No, sir, we don't want it now, but we 
 will want it in the cold days of winter, and in the 
 long nights." " And won't it be time enough to cut 
 it when you want it, and let the winter provide for 
 itself?" " Oh, muiska, sir, it would be too late 
 then." It will be readily seen that he had been 
 working for a text, and having now got it, would
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 171 
 
 proceed with his sermon. Mr Reilly adds the follow- 
 ing fact at the same time, though to us it appears 
 to belong to a later date : 
 
 " A gentleman in Dublin told him that once, when 
 under great anxiety for the salvation of an eminent 
 friend of his, he had in vain applied to several clergy- 
 men to accompany him on a visit, with a view to 
 speaking to the nobleman in question about his soul. 
 One day he said to himself, ' I had a promise from 
 B - that he would come with me, but six months 
 have elapsed, and he has not fulfilled his promise. 
 He is like every one else, afraid of his lordship. Oh, 
 will nobody come with me to see my dear lord? I 
 will go to Gideon Ouseley. He is in town, and 
 he'll come with me.' The gentleman went to Mr 
 Ouseley, and carried him off to the house of the noble 
 lord. The object of their visit being intimated by 
 the gentleman, Mr Ouseley affectionately urged home 
 upon his lordship the indispensable necessity of pre- 
 paration for the eternal world. ' Mr Ouseley,' he 
 replied, ( public business must be attended to, and 
 we have no time for these things.' ' But, my lord,' 
 said Gideon, ' we must find time to die, and we 
 must be prepared for that event.' The reply was, 
 ' And what am I to do, Mr Ouseley ? ' ' There's 
 the New Testament, which contains the will of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and tells you what you are to do, 
 my lord.' * But, Mr Ouseley, though there are 
 many things in that book which I can understand, 
 and do admire, I must confess there are other things 
 which I cannot agree with.' ' Ah, my lord, that 
 will never do. What if your lordship had a 
 case submitted to you for an opinion, and after
 
 172 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 your opinion had been drawn up with the ut- 
 most care and legal accuracy, the person should 
 say, " Why, my lord, there's part of this a large 
 part good ; but with other parts I can't agree." 
 What would you say, my lord ? ' l Ah, I perceive 
 your meaning. We must receive the whole of it 
 as a revelation from God.' * Exactly so, my lord. 
 Take up that Book, believe what it says, and do what 
 it commands, and you will, my lord, be prepared by 
 His mercy for the hour of death and for the day when 
 the Great Judge shall appear.' ' Mr Reilly adds that 
 "as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and 
 judgment to come, Felix trembled" the great man 
 expressed his feelings of gratitude, and invited the 
 two friends to dinner. Mr Ouseley sought faithfully 
 to impress him with the realities of the world upon 
 the threshold of which it was said he was standing ; 
 but whether any beneficial results followed is not 
 known. 
 
 Mr Reilly further mentions that a favourite name 
 for Mr Ouseley among the country-folk was Sheedd- 
 no-var, which he translates as " the silk of men ; " 
 it seems to express the strong feeling of personal 
 affection with which they always regarded him, 
 when not excited against him by some hostile in- 
 fluences. The intense love he bore to them was 
 expressed in his every tone and movement, and 
 could not fail of making its impression on their 
 hearts. It is said that sometimes during his 
 sermons the congregation would simultaneously rise 
 from their seats, as by a sudden impulse, and, all 
 falling down, cry out, with earnest tears, seeking 
 for mercy. In the neighbourhood of Balliua and
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 173 
 
 Sligo, two helpers are mentioned, differing from his 
 ordinary Methodist fellow-labourers : one, the curate 
 of Easky, a village in the county of Sligo, not far 
 from Ballina, who is spoken of as labouring very 
 zealously, and having Ouseley and Hamilton at 
 meetings in his church; and the other, the Rev. 
 Mr Caldwell, of Sligo, a minister of the Presby- 
 terian Church, who, after he had himself experienced 
 a great change, would help him in his field-meetings 
 and prayer-meetings, remaining for hours together 
 praying with the penitents, as they sought mercy. 
 
 In 1807, Hamilton and Ouseley were appointed 
 to the counties of Sligo, Mayo, and Galway, ground 
 on which they were not strangers. The population 
 was thin, the Protestants few, and the important 
 places lay far apart. From the remote corners of 
 Erris, a typical highland tract on the coast of Mayo, 
 to the comparatively civilised regions in the east 
 of Galway, Roscommou, and Sligo, they could be 
 tracked by tales of risks, escapes, and happy con- 
 versions. 
 
 While labouring with great success in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Ballina, Mr Ouseley published a series 
 of letters to Dr Bellew, the Roman Catholic bishop 
 of Ardnaree, as the ancient portion of the same 
 town on the Sligo side of the Moy is called. These 
 tracts appear to have been the commencement of 
 his polemical publications. They were called forth 
 by the violence to which he and his fellow-labourers 
 as well as their converts were subject. He evi- 
 dently thinks that the influence exerted by Bishop 
 Bellew was rather a stimulating than a moderating 
 one; for he plainly says, after alleging many acts
 
 174 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 of violence, that they were mainly due to the bishop; 
 and among cases of cursing, mentions, " You cursed 
 a friar for begging in the parish." After much con- 
 troversial matter, he comes to particulars, making 
 statements which illustrate, not only the point 
 immediately in hand, but the condition of the 
 country generally. " Some of the poor in your 
 diocese," he says, " lest the curse of the clergy 
 should light on them, were compelled to go as public 
 spectacles, bare-headed and bare-footed, in the cold 
 from their own houses, arid along through the 
 streets to the chapel, and there to walk on their 
 bare knees from the door, through the chapel, and 
 from one chapel to another some in Crossmolina, by 
 Priest Hughes; some here lately, by Priest Walsh; 
 and some in other places not for any of the 
 monstrous crimes daily committed against God, but 
 for having with sighs and tears heard us preach 
 the gospel of Christ. I remember Priest Grady, of 
 Ballymote, about nine years ago, when I preached 
 to the people there, brought in the same manner a 
 number of these poor creatures, bare-headed and 
 bare-footed, through the streets, as public spectacles, 
 and then made them kneel down to ask his pardon, 
 and God's, for having heard His Holy Word." He 
 further states, that "Priest Flannagan, at Ballycastle, 
 in the barony of Tyrawly, not long before, took oath 
 publicly on the Book of God, that no Protestant 
 would ever enter the kingdom of heaven. He took 
 a second oath, that the Protestant Testament, which 
 he had in his hand, was a false one. He also took 
 a Testament from a Romanist young man, and had 
 it locked up.
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 175 
 
 " The Priest Gilboy, of Migavnagh, in the same 
 barony, in his drunkenness and in the presence of 
 Protestants, swore by the hand of God that we were 
 false prophets. At a public funeral, when a young 
 man had reproved one for swearing, the same priest 
 prayed most earnestly that his seven curses, the curse 
 of God, and bad luck, might alight on any one that 
 would listen to him or to us. Priest Hopkins, 
 helper of Priest Hughes of Crossmolina, declared that 
 any one who would listeu to Otiseley would be bound 
 to the devil in the flames of hell for ever. Priest 
 Walsh, of Ardnaree, beat some people with a stick 
 in the streets on the Sabbath-day, because they had 
 been to hear for themselves. Priest Kelly, of 
 Ballysakeeny, came into the house of a Protestant, 
 drunk and roaring forth curses, and asked the owner 
 of the house if he did not let some of the Methodists 
 into his house. He beat a young man of his own 
 flock severely for living with a Protestant, in a 
 village where we preached; and declared upon 
 his honour, and again upon his honour, that he 
 would banish the fellow, and not let any priest 
 receive him, on account of his having heard these false 
 prophets. 
 
 " On the 22d of November last, as I was preach- 
 ing in the street in the town of Tuam to a large 
 flock as solemn as death, and was explaining out of a 
 Roman bishop's book (Challoner's 'Meditations') the 
 nature and necessity of true faith, into the crowd 
 runs a young man Priest Hughes, just from May- 
 nooth crying out, '0 Catholics! Catholics! why 
 are you listening to this devil ? Follow me ! ' 
 
 In the midst of all this, writing to his friend Mr
 
 1 76 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Langtree, he says that instead of feeling disheartened 
 by such opposition, he was full of courage and 
 thanksgiving. He speaks of one village where 
 twelve persons had lately found peace, four of them 
 being Romanists. " When I am away, the priest 
 threatens, curses, and exhorts them to hear me no 
 more ; but when I last came back, they broke their 
 cords like Samson, weeping and praying young 
 men, men, women, and children. Last Thursday a 
 priest came and called out to one of the hearers, 
 ' Polly, you are here again, hearing the preacher ; 
 Polly, I will cut you off, I will drive you from my 
 flock, I will excommunicate you ; and John Willis, 
 and Thady Twohy, and John, and all of you ; so I 
 will.' l Well, sir,' said Polly, l so you can, I am sure ; 
 but I hope you cannot drive us from God ! ' He 
 walked off, and next day sent his man to gather corn 
 from them all; but they all refused, and would not 
 give him a grain." Mr Ouseley then relates how 
 the little daughter of one of them, having found 
 peace in a class-meeting, stood up and said, " Oh, if 
 you but felt what I feel ; oh, if you would but get 
 the love of God, you would never be afraid of the 
 priest again I " 
 
 Mr Hamilton, writing also to Langtree, says, 
 " Last Christmas we were waylaid and robbed of 
 our books. Ouseley was hurt, and lost his hat in 
 the fray. He had to ride seven miles before he got 
 one. It happened near Eyrecourt on the Shannon. 
 We had preached there that day, and had a battle 
 with the priest and his people. The priest beat my 
 horse greatly, and the people dragged him down the 
 street, and I on his back ; but the soldiers got me
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 177 
 
 into the barrack-yard. Ouseley was hurt there too. 
 The soldiers then got arms, loaded their pieces, fixed 
 their bayonets, marched out before us, and formed 
 square about us both in the street, until we preached 
 to the market-people. They then put us safe out of 
 the town, but never thought our persecutors had got 
 before us, and lay concealed until we came up ; and 
 then they surrounded us with horrid shouting, as if 
 Scullabogue Barn had been on fire. At another 
 time, a big priest and I were in holds of each other. 
 He had been going to pull my Ouseley down. I 
 could easily have injured him, for he was very drunk." 
 The Rev. John Duncan says, " Frank Shannon 
 was returning home one market-day from Ballina, 
 when he was attracted by the voice of Ouseley 
 preaching in the street, in Irish. It had a charm 
 for the ear of Frank, and he and his wife pushed 
 their way through the crowd to get near the preacher. 
 After listening for a while, the wife, not altogether 
 relishing his home thrusts, plucked her husband's 
 coat, and asked him to leave. ' Wait till we hear 
 him out/ was the reply. The preacher became more 
 pointed and earnest. A second and third effort from 
 the wife to draw Frank off met with the reply, 
 'Wait till he's done.' The gospel truths heard 
 on that occasion made a lodgement in a mind ex- 
 ceedingly dark, and previously wholly destitute of 
 the fear of God ; and Frank went home a convinced 
 sinner. It was the turning-point in his life. Mr 
 Ouseley soon found his way to Ballinagar, Frank's 
 neighbourhood, five miles from Ballina. He was 
 entertained in the house of a man far better off than 
 Shannon, and there preached ' the disease and the 
 
 M
 
 178 LIFE OF GIDEON USE LEY. 
 
 cure/ as he was wont to express it. Several received 
 the truth, and were formed into a class. Of these 
 Frank was one of the first. He entered into the 
 liberty of God's children, and at once took his stand 
 with them. From that time until his death, the 
 class-meeting was a service he greatly loved, and from 
 which he never willingly absented himself. And this, 
 with his unceasing prayer, helped to nourish his deep 
 piety, and his unwavering stability, for half a century. 
 " The man in whose house Mr Ouseley preached, 
 unwilling either to bear the reproach or the expense, 
 gave him, by his manner, to feel this ; and Mr 
 Ouseley, one night, after preaching, when announc- 
 ing for his next visit to that place, said, pointing 
 to Frank Shannon, ' Frank, I'll stop and preach 
 in your house.' 'Ah, sir,' said Frank, ' 1 would 
 be delighted to have you in my house ; but what 
 shall I do for a bed ? The only one myself and 
 my wife have to lie on is straw.' f Can you give 
 me straw and a blanket ? ' asked the missionary. 
 1 I can, sir,' said Frank gladly. ' Then I'll be 
 with you, please God, this night month,' said 
 Ouseley. 'Ah, then, sir, it's myself will have a 
 cead mille falthe (Anglice, " a hundred thousand 
 welcomes") for yon.' 'And sure enough,' said 
 Frank, with an air of triumph, when telling me 
 this (about 1841 or 1842), 'he came, and preached, 
 and held the prayer-meeting, and met the class, and 
 slept on the straw, and put up with my poor fare ; 
 and he continued to come regularly until he left the 
 mission, and he often came since. And,' added the 
 good man, ' I have never been a month since without 
 a preacher. I have sometimes had the servants of
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 179 
 
 God two together. Frequently, I have had them 
 once a fortnight, and oftener. And, best of all, I 
 have my wife converted, all my children converted, 
 and their houses the preachers' home. And now, 
 glory be to God, all my grandchildren who are 
 capable of it are converted ' (for we were at the time 
 favoured with a gracious visitation of saving power), 
 1 and my highest wish, next to beholding my glorious 
 Lord, is to see my spiritual father, Gideon Ouseley, 
 in heaven.' This was said with weeping eyes, and 
 with an earnestness and pathos which showed that 
 the hope of the aged pilgrim was full of immortality. 
 
 " While the property and family of the man whose 
 house Mr Ouseley forsook all melted away, Frank 
 Shannon became comfortable as a small farmer, 
 reared and educated his family, lived a blessing in the 
 neighbourhood, died in the triumph of faith, and has 
 left his offspring behind him following in his steps." 
 
 Both ministers of the Ballina Circuit were enter- 
 tained periodically in Frank's house, when Mr Duncan 
 was stationed there. Mr Duncan says, " The house 
 of the old man was what some would call a very 
 humble one ; but it was clean and comfortable, and 
 happy too, for it was sanctified by a deep and all- 
 pervading piety. . . . He was familiar with the 
 Holy Bible, for which he had the profoundest rever- 
 ence, and would often quote it in conversation. He 
 was a man of much prayer, and would often leave 
 his work to plead with God beneath the hedges of 
 his fields, or in one of the outhouses. He blessed 
 God for the possession of that ' perfect peace ' which 
 ' casteth out fear.' All who knew him respected 
 him. The godless would say, ' Yes, Frank is a good
 
 i8o LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 man ; ' but those who knew him best would say, 
 * He is a holy man.' ' 
 
 In 1809, for the first time, Ouseley speaks of 
 serious illness. By lying in a room with a damp 
 floor, he contracted cold and ague, but seems to have 
 been able, after a few days, to resume work. At this 
 time he was labouring chiefly in the county of Clare, 
 a hard and stony ground, with a few scattered hand- 
 fuls of Protestants, and immense distances to travel. 
 Hamilton and he sought out, not only the little groups 
 of Protestants, but it is the impression of Mr Nelson 
 that over the whole extent of that large county, Mr 
 Ouseley did not leave a single Protestant family that 
 he did not find out and visit. The most secluded 
 tracts on the wild coast beaten by the Atlantic, the 
 mountains and the bogs, were all traversed in search 
 of even one lost sheep. The accommodation obtain- 
 able would sometimes be in a cottage, sometimes in a 
 cabin, sometimes in a hovel. "With the single excep- 
 tion of the case we have just cited, we have no hint 
 from him of the sort of place he had to sleep in, or 
 the sort of fare he enjoyed. But Mr Reilly tells us 
 that when Ouseley gave him his " plan " for travel- 
 ling, there was one place which he never failed to 
 mark with this note, " Sleep in the loft ! " and this 
 was not the cabin of some wretched labourer, but of 
 one who was called by Mr Reilly a wealthy farmer. 
 The loft indicated was the choice portion of the house, 
 because the only dry one. It consisted of a bit of 
 boarded floor, between the rafters over part of the 
 kitchen. It was reached by a step-ladder, and one 
 could not stand upright in it. The old couple made 
 it their bedroom, and in spite of Ouseley 's recom-
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 181 
 
 mendation to Reilly, the latter never procured admis- 
 sion to it but once. The preacher's room was a back 
 one, with an earthen floor, and a small window choked 
 with nettles and hemlock. The walls were covered 
 with sepulchral green, and the earthen floor was so 
 damp that " when I entered," says Reilly, " at any 
 time, my feet sank into it ; and when I entered my 
 bed, I thought of my grave." On this ground, the 
 brave and faithful William Hamilton was soon dis- 
 abled, and yet he lived to mourn over the death of 
 his beloved Gideon Ouseley. The next colleague of 
 the latter, Mr William Rutledge, carried into the 
 work a frame unequal to its hardships. He lived 
 long enough to record of his leader, " Why, Mr 
 Ouseley preaches more on his horse's back, as he 
 rides along his way, than in all his sermons." Be- 
 fore Rutledge had spent an entire year in missionary 
 labour, he was laid low; and this, of course, threw 
 additional care and work on Ouseley, who toiled on. 
 
 From Clare, crossing the broad Shannon into 
 Tipperary, Mr Ouseley penetrated to the town of 
 Borrissokane. In writing to Dr Coke, he says that 
 when he entered it alone, "last Christmas twelvemonth, 
 there were no Methodists in the place but one, and 
 he a Baptist ; nor did I know a single person in it. 
 I was told it was a most wicked place, in which, many 
 efforts to preach the gospel had been baffled. " Three 
 persons are mentioned, Messrs Hackett, Holland, and 
 Reid, as having been kindly and seriously disposed. 
 Here the preaching of Mr Ouseley was attended with 
 a power from on high, remarkable even for him. Ou 
 Easter Monday, 1810, accompanied by the Rev. Adam 
 Averell, he took down the names of sixty persons as
 
 1 82 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 admitted on trial into the Methodist Society. One 
 day, while he was standing upon a table in the street 
 preaching to a crowd, a youth, called Thomas Ballard, 
 heard him and cried, " What must I do to be saved? " 
 He lived and died a faithful Christian minister, and 
 left sons behind him to follow in the father's steps. 
 Both Nelson and Reilly speak with deep and reveren- 
 tial feeling of the manifestations of the converting 
 power of God in Borrissokane and its neighbourhood 
 at this time, and the years succeeding. The perma- 
 nent walk of the converts yielded an accumulating 
 testimony to the reality of the work. 
 
 Mr Edward Rigby, now a City Missionary (in 
 London), says, "It is more than sixty years since 
 I first heard Mr Ouseley. I see him now as distinctly 
 his gestures, his fire, his pathos, his smile, his 
 benignity, his powerful persuasiveness and tact, and 
 his peculiar shake of the hand as ever I did. If 
 ever heart went with hand to a brother or sister, it 
 did so in Gideon Ouseley's shake. . . . My early 
 days were passed in Enniscorthy, on the beautiful, 
 blood-stained river Slaney, which flows beneath 
 Vinegar Hill, notorious for the murder of Protestants 
 in 1798. When very young I was taken to the Metho- 
 dist preaching, in a large attic, a chair being the pul- 
 pit, and frequently the preacher was a bandsman in 
 full military uniform. It was always too small for 
 the gatherings which followed ' the men in black caps 
 and long gaiters.' Before and after the erection of 
 the chapel, opened in or about 1810 by the Rev. 
 Adam Averell, Messrs Graham and Ouseley preached 
 on Sunday mornings and evenings in large corn- 
 stores, still standing, opposite the new and pretty
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 183 
 
 Wesleyan chapel near the castle, the old chapel being 
 converted into a foundry. The services in the stores 
 were usually preceded by outdoor services in some 
 part of the town. I was known as a singer, and was 
 looked for in outdoor services. Mr Ouseley used to 
 say, with his coaxing smile, 'Now, Edward, my lad, 
 let your voice be heard.' In 1814 I sang in the 
 church, with several others. Mr Ouseley had preached 
 at ten o'clock in the chapel, and went thence to the 
 church. When the service was over, I was told by 
 an old friend, now in heaven, to hasten to the corner 
 of Church Street, as Mr Ouseley was going to preach. 
 I joined the crowd. He read the hymn, 
 
 ' When I survey the wondrous cross,' 
 
 first in English and then in Irish. Whilst reading 
 it in Irish, the crowd greatly increased ; whatever 
 noise there had been before, ceased ; and the people 
 all remained to the end. His text was Acts x. 34, 
 35. The sermon was short, but pithy, with a modest 
 touch of controversy. He dwelt chiefly on Peter's 
 teaching, and quoted the Rhemish Testament; and 
 described the character of God as set forth in the 
 Bible, both Douay and Authorised, and finally the 
 acceptance and approval by Him of the righteousness 
 indicated. The interchanges between the English 
 and the Irish languages, kept the hearers perfectly 
 quiet. At that time there was a good deal of Irish 
 spoken in the neighbourhood, but it has totally dis- 
 appeared. Half the audience were Romanists. 
 
 " In 1815, Mr Ouseley and Mr Taylor met in the 
 town, and preached in the chapel and streets. The 
 soldiers were invited to the chapel, and it was filled,
 
 1 84 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 and persons stood outside to hear. One of Mr 
 Ouseley's texts was Psalm xl. 2. He described pits, 
 dark, dismal, and yawning ; and in describing hell, 
 he leaned over the pulpit, and looked down, as into 
 perdition, and quoted several scriptures as descriptive 
 of its horrors and duration, which occasioned much 
 feeling. 
 
 "When I was a schoolboy, in 1808 or 1809, on a 
 market-day, it poured with rain when school was 
 dismissed for dinner at noon. We were all in haste 
 because of the rain, but were met by schoolfellows 
 who reported that the ' black caps and saddle-bags ' 
 were preaching in Irish at the market-house. It lay 
 on my way home, and at that time neither young 
 nor old cared as much for a shower of rain as people 
 do now, and an umbrella was a novelty, there being 
 hardly one in twenty miles, in the humbler walks of 
 life. There was a great crowd, and great attention 
 and much feeling were evinced while Mr Graham 
 was speaking; and at the close of his address, Mr 
 Ouseley began most pathetically, when a woman near 
 me began to weep. After a few words, he gave out 
 his text, laying a strong emphasis on particular words. 
 It was Isaiah Iv. 1, read first in English, and then 
 in Irish. While he was making powerful appeals, 
 the priest, who lodged over the way, crossed the 
 street, enveloped in a huge greatcoat with several 
 folding capes, and bustled into the midst of the 
 assembly. He listened for a while, and then per- 
 emptorily ordered his flock to leave. No one stirred, 
 as the preacher did not cease. The priest then 
 undid his outer garment, and produced a large whip, 
 with the thong of which he belaboured every one
 
 LABOURS WITH MR W. HAMILTON. 185 
 
 near him, and away went men, women, and boys, 
 like a flock of summer flies fanned away by a hand- 
 kerchief, only to return again when the handkerchief 
 has been restored to the pocket. The priest, when 
 the people ran away, held up the whip, and threat- 
 ened Mr Ouseley, saying, that l but for the law, I 
 would serve you the same.' Having so delivered 
 himself, he hastened back to his quarters ; and the 
 people, with equal haste, returned to hear the end 
 of the discourse. There was preaching in the stores 
 on the following Sunday, and crowds attended. 
 
 "On another occasion, Mr Ouseley was accompanied 
 to Enniscorthy by one who both spoke the Irish 
 tongue, and had the voice of a Boanerges. They 
 preached in the market-place on market-day, and on 
 Sunday at noon, when the people were leaving last 
 mass. Two priests looked on from a distance, but 
 did nothing, although two hundred of their people 
 stood listening to persuasive truth. On Monday morn- 
 ing, at ten o'clock, both stood on the market-house 
 steps, and preached; and, while they were doing so, 
 a man who affected to be drunk began to sing a 
 vulgar song and perform antics, but was soon sent 
 adrift by Mr Williams, a Methodist a man always 
 ready to protect those who needed it, and more 
 feared than loved by those who hated Protestantism. 
 
 "At another time, Mr Ouseley paid us a hurried 
 visit, preaching in the street and the chapel, and 
 leading special prayer-meetings. It was the first 
 time I ever saw the l penitent form,' but I then 
 saw not a few happy results. At this visit, when 
 Mr Ouseley was just giving out his text in the 
 market-place, from Isaiah iii. 10, 11, ' Say ye to the
 
 1 86 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 righteous,' &c., two men began to quarrel. A strong 
 emphasis was laid by the preacher on the words 
 * say ' and ( woe/ and some others, and the oddness 
 of the thing attracted the quarrellers as well as 
 others, and there was an end to the quarrel, and the 
 discourse was listened to with the desired result. 
 The hymn, ' And am I only born to die ? ' was sung 
 with great fervour, and a prayer-meeting in the 
 chapel afterward was well attended. This was a 
 refreshing season. The last time I was in Ennis- 
 corthy, I inquired if the same could be done in the 
 market-place as used to be, and the answer was, 
 ' The preacher would be likely to lose his life.' Such 
 is the change with that of the population.''
 
 CHAPTER XIIT. 
 
 LABOURS IN CONNECTION WITH MESSRS NELSON, 
 RE1LLY, AND OTHERS. 
 
 IN 1810, John Nelson and William Reilly were 
 appointed to share with Ouseley his hard lot and 
 endless toils in Clare. The former still survives in 
 hale and happy old age, a noble specimen of the 
 men who did God's work side by side with Ouseley. 
 The latter, in his biography, has left permanent 
 records illustrating the character of Gideon. He 
 first met him as his colleague on a Sunday evening, 
 on the western bank of the Shannon at Killaloe. 
 Already that day the young missionary had ridden 
 some thirty-one miles, and preached, and had now to 
 preach again before the veteran. After his sermon, 
 Mr Ouseley gave an address, in which Reilly deeply 
 affected himself, and witnessing the power which 
 moved the people heard him relate the circum- 
 stances of his conversion, nineteen years before, when 
 the Lord had taken away his intolerable burden of 
 sin arid guilt on " that Sunday morning ; " and then, 
 said Ouseley, three months afterwards, " my great 
 Prince, who sits upon the throne, said, ' Behold, I 
 make all things new.' ' 
 
 Mr Reillv relates how he soon found out that he had
 
 iS8 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 u to follow or move onwards," with a mail possessing 
 
 " A soul inured to pain, 
 
 To hardship, grief, and loss. 
 Bold to take up, firm to sustain, 
 The consecrated cross." 
 
 He Lad heard so much of Mr Ouseley, that he 
 imagined that such a public man could not possibly 
 find time to visit small places, or form or shepherd 
 little Societies ; but it proved to be far otherwise. 
 In their long rides, every town through which they 
 passed heard Gideon's deep voice roll out, in both 
 English and Irish, the message of grace for all. One 
 day, after they had travelled far to Ennistimond, 
 where he preached with vehemence, they rode on 
 five miles farther; and neither of them tasted any- 
 thing until after the labours of the evening meeting 
 closed about nine o'clock. This was always the ca'se 
 at that particular spot. The only pretence of a 
 window in the house was one polygon piece of a 
 broken pane stuck in a green sod. The next day 
 they reached a place still more remote, where they 
 were received by two women, the men being away at 
 work. No* sooner had they sat down in the cabin 
 than Ouseley began to sing a hymn of thanksgiving 
 for preserving and redeeming mercies. The two 
 women went off to the fields, and bringing some 
 sheaves of oats because the time of potatoes was not 
 yet, and the old ones were all gone they toasted the 
 grain over the fire, and then the missionaries lite- 
 rally saw the " two women grinding at the mill." 
 Even at that time, and indeed much later, the hand- 
 mill of the East was still represented in the quern 
 of the farthest West, the shores of Coromandel and
 
 LABOURS WITH NELSON, REILLY, &*c. 189 
 
 those of Connaught displaying the old unity of 
 human want and supply, though half of Asia and the 
 entire breadth of inventive Europe, with its new- 
 fangled mills, lay between them. 
 
 Mr Reilly, one day riding alone to a preaching- 
 place in a tongue of land called the " West," bounded 
 by the Atlantic and the Shannon, found wilds suc- 
 ceeded by sterner wilds, till bare mountains, terrific 
 cliffs, and the lone ocean were all the eye could see. 
 He exclaimed, " Mr Ouseley ! Mr Ouseley ! how 
 did you find out this retreat?" At last a neat cot 
 cropped up on the moor, disclosing the precious 
 grains for which Ouseley had prospected. The family 
 had already received the good word, and with them 
 and a few neighbours Mr Reilly enjoyed the com- 
 munion of the Church in the wilderness. The next 
 day, as the young preacher rode along, with the peaks 
 of Kerry and the estuary of the Shannon in full 
 view, a vivid, evangelistic life was thrown into the 
 picture, of which the natural framework was so mag- 
 nificent, by the image of George Whitfield, who, a 
 hundred years before, had lauded in that little town 
 of Carrigaholt on the right. 
 
 Speaking of his own leader, Mr Reilly says, " Some 
 of the most hallowed reminiscences associated with 
 the character of that saintly man, are those in which 
 I witnessed his pure and fervent devotion. He made 
 it a rule, when he travelled in company and some- 
 times we were several weeks together that when we 
 retired we should alternately pray with and for 
 each other, and for the work in which we were 
 engaged. But his devout breathings, when alone, 
 which I often overheard, were most affecting. It
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 was difficult on such occasions to determine whether 
 the love of lost men or the love of Christ predomi- 
 nated. " My gracious Master, my gracious Master," 
 had generally the accompaniment, " Oh, poor lost 
 sinners ! oh, my deluded countrymen ! Lord, save 
 my country ! " He then quotes from Mr Noble, a 
 later fellow-helper of Mr Ouseley, and his own sou 
 in the faith : " How often have I known this 
 blessed man, when all the family with whom he 
 lodged had retired to rest how often have I known 
 him to spend hours together, wrestling with God in 
 ardent, mighty prayer for the conversion of lost souls ; 
 and he would plead with God in great earnestness, 'If 
 Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.' ' 
 
 Study went with prayer. His sermons were so 
 free that many would think them impromptu, whereas 
 they were only extempore. The substance had been 
 well thought out, the expression was as God gave it. 
 On horseback, where he very often read, his favourite 
 books, according to Mr Reilly, were old divines, or 
 Gallagher's Irish Sermons, the Decrees of the Council 
 of Trent in Latin, or the Greek Testament. In houses 
 where he was entertained, he soon retired to apply 
 himself to reading and writing. 
 
 One day, in Limerick, Mr Thomas Tracey accom- 
 panied him in a round of applications for subscrip- 
 tions towards the building of some chapel. Mr 
 Ouseley was constantly speaking to the persons with 
 whom they met on points connected with the new 
 birth. In the evening his sermon was on that sub- 
 ject. Mr Tracey said, " I always wondered how Mr 
 Ouseley could get time to study his sermons ; now, 
 I am not surprised."
 
 LABOURS WITH NELSON, REILLY, &v. 191 
 
 Such a student, if not unprepared, was not ham- 
 pered by his preparation : free to take advantage of 
 every incident and every inspiration, he was also apt 
 to do so. The Rev. William Ferguson, whose 
 venerable figure adorned the Irish Conference long 
 after Ouseley had been laid asleep, tells us (as related, 
 at length, by Mr Reilly) how on one occasion, in 
 Limerick, he heard Ouseley preach in the barracks 
 of the Sligo Militia, while under the window rolled 
 the Shannon, from near the head of which river most 
 of his hearers had come. Speaking on the words, 
 " The simple passeth on, and is punished," he 
 defined the simple as a man without the knowledge 
 of God, and a stranger to the wisdom from above. 
 He may be very acute in transacting the business 
 of this life an able statesman, a profound philo- 
 sopher, an eminent artist, or a distinguished scholar 
 but he passes on, according to the course of this 
 world, and dies unconverted. . . . His punishment 
 the place the company the duration. On the 
 last point he said, " If you were to count a thousand 
 years for every drop of water that ever flowed in the 
 Shannon from Drumshambo to the sea, it would be 
 a point compared with the eternity through which 
 you will have to endure the wrath of God." 
 
 In company he was as much an evangelist as in 
 the saddle or pulpit. Mr Reilly describes an evening 
 party in Borrissokane, where Mr Ouseley, turning 
 to the lady on one hand, whom he knew, quietly in- 
 quired respecting the one upon the other hand, " Is 
 this lady born again ?" The first replied, " She is of 
 age: ask her." And the result was an almost instan- 
 taneous conversion, and a blessed influence upon the
 
 1 92 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 whole company. Again quoting from Mr Noble, he 
 relates a case where Mr Ouseley had stopped to water 
 his horse at a stream in the county of Wicklow, and 
 saw a young woman standing at her father's door. He 
 went up to her, took her by the hand, spoke to her 
 for a few moments about her soul, and parting, 
 prayed that the blessing of the Lord might rest upon 
 her. Two years subsequently, after preaching, a young 
 inau came up to him and invited him to his house. 
 On arriving the next evening, the hostess said to 
 him, " Mr Ouseley, I believe you do not know me." 
 " No, my dear, I don't." Recalling the scene at 
 the door of the house by the stream, she said, " I am 
 the person you spoke to on that occasion. Up to 
 that period I had known nothing of the way of sal- 
 vation through the Lord Jesus Christ ; but your 
 observations resulted in my conversion. I am now 
 married ; the young man who invited you is my 
 husband, and is a class-leader. The Lord is with us, 
 and is blessing us ; and we rejoice to see under our 
 roof my father in the gospel." 
 
 In small towns, before preaching indoors, he would 
 select an hour when the labouring men were saunter- 
 ing about before supper ; and, getting under a tree, if 
 possible with seats round it, would begin singing the 
 plaintive air of " Molly Asthore " to a hymn in Irish 
 or English. In larger towns, on the other hand, 
 keeping to the saddTe, he would place himself before 
 a shop window, if possible that of an apothecary, and, 
 above all, of a Roman Catholic, for both of these 
 circumstances helped to deter the mob from throwing 
 stones. In county towns he aimed at being present 
 during the assizes, and by this time his name was so
 
 LABOURS WITH NELSON, RE ILLY, &c. 193 
 
 generally known, that, in the language of Mr Reilly, 
 lawyers, magistrates, jurors, yeomen, and the lower 
 orders crowded into his outdoor congregations. The 
 field-meetings sometimes by barns, and occasion- 
 ally on the lawn beside a mansion were among his 
 most favourite scenes of labour. One of the latter is 
 dwelt upon by Mr Reilly, evidently with reminis- 
 cences of very remarkable blessing. It was held near 
 Borrissokane, in the grounds of Mr Wilson of Balli- 
 neven, and attended by thousands from all parts of 
 Lower Orrnond. After Mr Clegg had preached, came 
 Mr Ouseley, and " Oh, with what effect! " To house 
 the converts over his wide field, he undertook the 
 erection of chapels in eight separate towns. 
 
 In the spring of 1811, we find his first mention of 
 Connemara in a letter to Dr Coke, where he speaks 
 of dining with a priest of " rather good information," 
 at the house of a gentleman who had for two years 
 forsaken the mass. He and the priest had a con- 
 troversial, yet perfectly friendly, conversation. He 
 preached to three families, and some Papists, all of 
 whom were in tears. The gentleman showed the 
 tenacity of company incident to such remote localities, 
 and did not leave him until twelve o'clock at night, 
 which, for him, when doing anything else but plead- 
 ing among penitents seeking mercy, seems to have 
 been an hour unknown. He ends by saying, u They 
 wished to lay an embargo on me, but I came away in 
 the midst of a great storm, as I must, as it were, fly 
 from place to place." In the same year, alluding to 
 the centre of his work in Tipperary, Borrissokane, he 
 tells Dr Coke, " We have more than 150, perhaps 
 nearly 200, in Society; and six blessed class-leaders."
 
 194 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY, 
 
 About the same time, speaking of Clare, he says, " It is 
 the worst ground for the gospel I ever met with ; 
 but even there we have sons and daughters born 
 to God." He was soon greatly rejoiced by a remit- 
 tance from Mr Averell, then in England, amounting 
 to no less than 400, towards the building of the 
 various chapels which he had in hand. Mr Reilly 
 gives an interesting account of the way in which this 
 money was procured. One Saturday evening, preach- 
 ing in the city of G-alway, in a room like a cellar, in 
 a miserable back lane chiefly occupied with herring- 
 stores, he saw in the congregation an elderly gentle- 
 man whose appearance impressed him. At the close, 
 the stranger introduced himself as Mr Maberly of 
 London, and said, "Mr Reilly, this will never do. 
 The Methodists of Galway must have a fit place for 
 the worship of God. I am not a Methodist, I am a 
 Dissenter ; but on my return to London, I will speak 
 to some of my friends, and I hope I shall get some- 
 thing to assist you in building a suitable chapel." 
 Mr Maberly, who belonged, as Mr Reilly believes, to 
 the Congregational body, procured 250, and gave it 
 to Mr Averell, then attending the London Confer- 
 ence. The latter procured 150 more, and so was 
 enabled to send Ouseley what, at that time, seemed a 
 very large amount. 
 
 It was in some of the tours of which we are now 
 speaking that one was converted, who proved to be 
 fruit of rare value. James Home, then a soldier, 
 soon became a public exhorter, and gave such proof 
 of gifts and grace that his discharge was procured, 
 and eventually he ran a noble race in the West Indies 
 as a missionary, and had a sou who became a mis- 
 sionary in Western Africa.
 
 LABOURS WITH NELSON, RE ILLY, frc. 195 
 
 Mr Ouseley used to relate the following illustra- 
 tions of his manner iu dealing with Roman Catho- 
 lics. He reports as an eyewitness. Conversing with 
 a Romanist, Mr Ouseley learns that he has been at 
 confession; "And what good do you get from that, 
 my child ? " " Och, and I get plenty, your riverence. 
 I get absolution, and everything is put right for 
 my soul." " And how long does it last, my child ? " 
 " Och, and shure enough, not long ; for I'm soon, 
 back to my ould ways, and I'm in need of absolution 
 again." " And so, my child, you're no better. Your 
 old sin has still the old power over you. You're not 
 cured. Don't you see that? You're not cured. Now, 
 suppose you had the falling sickness, and that you 
 had tried every way you could think of for a cure ; 
 but you're no better rather worse. One day a man 
 comes to your village, and sends word round by the 
 bellman that he has a never-failing cure for the fall- 
 ing sickness. l Och,' you think, ' I may be cured 
 after all ! ' and you're very glad, and away you go to 
 him, with your money ; and you find him with a 
 robe and a ribbon upon him ; and he asks you a lot 
 of questions ; then he says some words in a strange 
 tongue, and waves his hands over you, and tells you 
 you're cured. That would make you happy, Asthore, 
 and you'd pay him his fee ; and as you went home, 
 your heart would be light, and you'd be saying, t I'm 
 cured I'm cured at last ! ' But just as you're reach- 
 ing your house, the old fit comes on, and you fall 
 down at your own door. Would you call that a cure ? " 
 " Troth no, your riverence." li Wouldn't you be 
 ready to run back, and call the man a cheat, and 
 require him to restore your money ? " And then he
 
 196 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 would preach Jesus, the Saviour from both guilt and 
 sin, until the wondering dupe was brought to under- 
 stand the difference between the imposture and the 
 healing power of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 As he was preaching in a fair, " a furious mob of 
 roughs " came, intent on mischief. Some friends 
 tried to form a " close circle" round him for his pro- 
 tection ; and this indication of intended defence in- 
 creased the violent excitement of the advancing mob. 
 Mr Ouseley immediately, with loud voice, addressed 
 those nearest him " Make way for the gintlemen ; " 
 and then with perfect courtesy of manner, looking at 
 the surprised roughs, he said, " Come forward, gintle- 
 men, I want to speak to you on important business." 
 This reception was so unexpected, and the mode of 
 address so novel, that they were quite disarmed, and 
 their leader hushed them to quiet, and quite respect- 
 fully approached the preacher. " You know Father 
 O'Shaughnessy, the parish priest?" "Yes, your 
 riverence." " Will you carry a message to him for 
 me?" " To be sure, your riverence." " Well, take 
 Gideon Ouseley's compliments to the reverend father, 
 and ask him, Can he make a fly ? not the fly that 
 they put on the fishing-hook ; but one of those little 
 things buzzing about our ears." " It's no use, your 
 riverence," said two or three at once ; " shure, we 
 know he couldn't." " What ! is it Father O'Shaugh- 
 nessy, the parish priest, cannot make one of these 
 little flies ? " " Och, and shure, he could do nothing of 
 the kind ! " several voices good-humouredly shouted. 
 "Ah, then, gintlemen, if you're sure he couldn't 
 make a little fly out of a bit of clay, how could he 
 make the blessed Saviour out of a bit of bread ? "
 
 LABOURS JVITH NELSON, REILLY, &*c. 197 
 
 " True for your riverence," several said gravely. So 
 he proceeded to show the absurdity and impossibility 
 of Transubstantiation ; and they heard him quietly 
 and attentively to the end. The late Rev. John 
 Greer, who furnished the narrative, added, " I 
 regret that I cannot give any idea, in writing, of 
 the rich Counaught brogue in which these things 
 were spoken, or the expressive action and gestures 
 with which they were accompanied, and by which 
 he adapted himself to the Romanists, gained their 
 attention, and often their affection and confidence 
 as well." 
 
 He was preaching on purgatory, in Sligo, and 
 Mr G-reer was present. Some time before, Dr Doyle, 
 one of the popular Roman Catholic bishops, had 
 published his view that purgatory was paradise. 
 " My Roman Catholic brethren," said Mr Ouseley, 
 "you have heard much about purgatory, and it has 
 cost you a great deal. Perhaps the priest never told 
 you where it is." " Arrah, sure he didn't," was the 
 immediate response. " Well, listen, and I'll tell you. 
 You know Dr Doyle ? Well, Dr Doyle says paradise 
 is purgatory. Aren't you sure he's right? Then, 
 we'll take for granted he is. You know the blessed 
 apostle St Paul says paradise is in the third heavens. 
 And sure the apostle must be right. Then, we'll take 
 for granted they are both right. If paradise is 
 purgatory, and paradise is in the third heavens, ergo, 
 purgatory is in the third heavens ! Now, ye fools, 
 go and sell your yarn, your cattle, and your pigs, 
 and give your money to the priest, to bring your 
 friends out of the third heavens I "
 
 198 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 In Lame he was showing forth the duty of the 
 people searching the Scriptures for themselves, and 
 expatiated on the commendation of the Bereans by 
 the inspired historian (Acts xvii. 11), and illus- 
 trated his subject from a recent travelling experience. 
 " I was coming here from Carrickfergus in a gig. 
 Taking for granted that I knew the road well enough, 
 I drove right on, passing many people going to 
 market. After a while, I began to doubt whether I 
 was right ; and meeting a gentleman on horseback, 
 I said to him, ' How far is it to Larne ? ' l This is 
 not the way,' said he ; ' you are two miles past where 
 you should have turned to the left up the hill. Come 
 back with me, and I'll show you the right way.' 
 Then striking his forehead with his hand, he shouted. 
 ' You ould fool, why didn't you inquire in time ? ' So 
 you go on from day to day, thinking you are going 
 right to heaven ; but you're in the wrong way. The 
 great God has told you the right way in His blessed 
 Bible. The priest says you mustn't read it ; but if 
 you don't inquire, you'll find you're wrong, as I did. 
 Never mind the priest. Inquire of God in His own 
 blessed Book, and He will teach you the way you 
 should go ; and the blessed Jesus will tell you, f I am 
 the way, and the truth, and the life." 
 
 Mr Greer adds, " Is the subject of Transubstantia- 
 tion introduced, and is especial emphasis placed on, 
 * This is my body ' ? He has many a reply. He would 
 quote similar forms of expression, such as, t This cup is 
 the new testament I am the true vine I am the door 
 I am the way The bright and the morning star 
 John the Baptist is Elias The tares are the children 
 of the wicked one Herod, that fox.' And he would
 
 LABOURS WITH NELSON, RE ILLY, &c. 199 
 
 require from his opponent the equally literal inter- 
 pretation of all these, with that of, l This is my body.' 
 He would remind his opponent that, according to the 
 teachings of the Church of Rome, there was no true 
 sacrifice for sin until Friday, the day after the insti- 
 tution of the Eucharist ; therefore, there could be no 
 proper sacrifice in #, and therefore no proper sacrifice 
 'in any after-Eucharist for ever.' Also, he would 
 ask him, If (as he would admit) Christ held the bread 
 in His own hands, and ate it with His own mouth 
 was that not Christ holding His own body in His own 
 fingers, and putting Himself, even His whole body, 
 into His own mouth, and swallowing Himself?" 
 
 In 1811, a Rev. MrThayer, who professed to be an 
 ex-Presbyterian minister converted to Romanism, in 
 America, issued boastful challenges to all Protestant 
 champions, promising to disprove, either privately or 
 publicly, anything they might allege. Ouseley wrote 
 to him, stating his own difficulties, and requesting 
 the proofs so loudly promised. Thayer judged it 
 well not to reply, and this fact becoming known, 
 he said publicly in the chapel in Limerick that Mr 
 Ouseley's letter was not worthy of an answer. The 
 latter, after waiting six months, said it was hardly 
 honourable to promise to pay on demand, and when 
 requested to do so, return for answer, " I do not 
 think it worth while to pay ; it is too trifling." He 
 again wrote, pressing for an answer, but in vain. 
 After this he expanded his letter, and published it 
 in a large pamphlet. It struck the attention of the 
 community, was eagerly read by all classes, was 
 vaunted by the Protestants as a triumph, and Thayer 
 
 * These retorts are repeated in some of his publications.
 
 200 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 never offered battle again. His own partisans did 
 not meet the exultations of their opponents with any 
 counter-claim to the honours of the field. We have 
 no means of judging the correctness of an opinion, 
 reported by Mr Reilly as that of a gentleman in 
 Limerick, to the effect that the death of Thayer, 
 which occurred not long after, was hastened by mor- 
 tification at his defeat. However, with the bulk of the 
 Protestant population, Ouseley from this time forth 
 became a favourite champion. His tract was, at various 
 times, modified and added to, until at last it expanded 
 into his " Old Christianity," a volume of between four 
 hundred and five hundred pages, several editions of 
 which were sold, and to the reading of which very many 
 useful men traced their release from Romanism. It 
 is one of those works which only a man of the people, 
 living among and for them, can write. Questions 
 of doctrine, which in other hands would be abstract 
 and remote from common feeling, are handled as 
 matters of fireside debate, acutely, homely, and 
 eagerly. Every now and then he moves under 
 restraint, as if he were bound to talk like a book; 
 but soon falls into his natural tone of a popular dis- 
 putant, with home-thrusts, clever illustrations, and 
 absurd dilemmas. The force of the attack lies in 
 his perfect knowledge of Romanism, as a working 
 system, combined with a thorough study of some of 
 its most important doctrinal standards, in his reverent 
 and passionate love for old Christianity as revealed in 
 the New Testament, and in his fearless purpose of 
 pressing home the truth, as taught in that blessed 
 book, against any logical fence, and any amount of 
 prescription or human authority. It owes not a little,
 
 LABOURS WITH NELSON, RE ILLY, frc. 201 
 
 also, to the fact that it is all attack ; for he feels that 
 the Reformed faith is not on its defence, standing as 
 it does in the old ways, and that a defensive position 
 is for those who add dogma to dogma and cult to 
 cult. Its perfect representation of the modes of 
 attack and reply common in the controversies of the 
 country, added more to its local effectiveness than it 
 detracted from its adaptation to other spheres, while 
 the freshness and individuality of treatment took it 
 out of the range of commonplace provincial polemics. 
 
 In May 1812, in the town of Ennis, as Mr Ouseley 
 was returning at night from the stable, where he had 
 been looking after his own horse and that of Mr 
 lieilly, he was watched by some fellows, one of whom, 
 taking aim at his head, threw a stone with all his 
 force. It struck the handle of his umbrella and 
 glanced off, but laid open his thumb "from the tip 
 to the joint." He calmly said, " Thank you, you 
 have drawn my blood at last." At Mr Lloyd's, where 
 the two colleagues went, it was proposed to pursue 
 the assailants; but Ouseley rejoiced that he was 
 counted worthy to suffer, and would not hear 
 of it. 
 
 A few days afterwards, when a fine young carpenter 
 was standing on a wall by the river Fergus, about 
 to plunge in and bathe, a stone under his feet rolled 
 round, and he fell on his stomach. Inflammation set 
 in, and in a few days he died. His comrades told, 
 and immediately it was whispered round the town, 
 that he was the man who had aimed a stone at the 
 head of the " servant of God." 
 
 At the house of Mr Hardy, of Killimore, a tall, 
 intelligent man, Father Glin, joined the company;
 
 202 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 but finding two Methodist preachers, soon said it 
 would be well to have a convention from all the 
 states of Christendom to settle the faith of the world, 
 and not to allow every tinker or tailor who pleased 
 to set up and interpret the Word of God. Ouseley 
 replied that such a thing would be very desirable. 
 After the priest had alleged that such an assembly 
 must be infallible, the other told him that he did not 
 believe in their infallibility, but found the disproof 
 of it in their existing system, many points of which 
 were erroneous. 
 
 " What part ? " demanded Father Glin. 
 
 " I shall begin," rejoined Ouseley, " with Extreme 
 Unction, which is no Christian sacrament, even 
 according to your own definition." 
 
 " Oh, my dear sir, was it not taught by St James 
 as having been instituted by Jesus Christ ? " 
 
 " No, sir. You are aware that, in order to be a 
 sacrament, it should have been instituted by Christ ; 
 but the Council of Trent is so far at a loss, that three 
 hundred bishops, with the Pope at their head, could 
 not find a single word of our Lord to sanction its 
 institution." 
 
 He quoted the language of the Council to the effect 
 that Extreme Unction had been hinted at by our 
 Lord, but recommended and promulgated by St 
 James. 
 
 " Thus you build the doctrine on an insinuation. 
 Besides, you say it is necessary to salvation, and 
 at the same time not necessary ; for it is forbidden 
 to such as have not come to the use of reason, and 
 if one is about to die under the sentence of the law, 
 lie cannot receive this sacrament. Therefore, you
 
 LABOURS WITH NELSON, RE ILLY, Sfc. 203 
 
 cannot believe it to be Divine, when you say it is 
 necessary and not necessary." 
 
 Father Glin changed the subject. They passed on 
 to that of Half Communion, to the doctrine of In- 
 tention, and that of the Real Presence ; and when 
 pressed on the latter point, he exclaimed, " My dear 
 sir, if you saw all the books I saw when at college in 
 France on that one subject, you would be afraid to 
 speak a word about it all the days of your life." 
 
 " My dear sir," replied Ouseley, " there are things 
 which a child can tell as well as an archbishop. 
 For instance, how many panes are there in that 
 window?" 
 
 " Pooh," said Father Glin, " that is a physical 
 fact. Any one can tell that." 
 
 "Is it not equally a physical fact that John the 
 Baptist was not the son of the Virgin Mary? " 
 
 " Very true, indeed, sir." 
 
 " Why was he not her son ? " 
 
 " Because John the Baptist was not born of the 
 Virgin Mary." 
 
 11 Could any man that had never been born of her, 
 by any power become her son ? " 
 
 " Certainly not." 
 
 * Doubtless he quoted the words of the first Canon of Sess. VII. : 
 "Si quis dixerit sacramenta novce legis nonfuisse omnia a Jesu Christo 
 Domino nostro institute/., . . . Anathema sit." " If any man saith that 
 the sacraments of the new law were not all instituted by our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, . . . let him be Anathema." The passage by comparing which 
 with this he proved the inconsistency of the Council would clearly be 
 the language of Caput L, under the head of " Extreme Unction, " 
 Sess. XIV. : "A Christo Domino nostro apud Marcum quidem 
 insinuatum per Jacobum autem apostolum ac Domini fratrem fidelibus 
 comrnendatum ac promulgatum." " Hinted at by Christ our Lord 
 in Mark, but commended and promulgated by the apostle James, the 
 brother of our Lord. "
 
 204 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 " Could anything that never was born of her be- 
 come her son ? " 
 
 " Indeed, I think not." 
 
 " I have you now," cried Ouseley, and proceeded 
 to argue that corn could not become the son of the 
 Virgin Mary ; and so for two hours the debate ran on. 
 
 Next morning the priest called at the house, and 
 said to the son of Mr Hardy, " Why, Master James, 
 these Methodist preachers are queer fellows. I did 
 not think they were such men." The young gentle- 
 man asked, " But what did you think of your own 
 argument, Father Grlin ? " 
 
 " If it were not for a bit of bread, I would never 
 celebrate mass as long as I live." 
 
 We hardly find any mention of presentiments in 
 the mind of Gideon Ouseley, but one case is given by 
 Mr Reilly. As they approached the town of Loughrea, 
 one Saturday, with the intention of preaching in the 
 market, Ouseley suddenly reined up his horse, and 
 said, " I feel as if the atmosphere were crowded with 
 devils. We'll be attacked in the town." Before 
 entering, he rode up to the house of a magistrate to 
 ask for protection, but the gentleman was not at 
 home. Meeting a sergeant in the army, he requested 
 him to walk with them through the street. It was 
 so thronged that they were obliged to ride single file. 
 As soon as Mr Ouseley appeared, a hideous yell was 
 set up ; such a yell as, in an Irish mob, means blood. 
 Execrations and missiles were hurled against him. 
 At length they reached the guardhouse where a sentry 
 stood. Here Ouseley halted, turning his back to the 
 guardhouse and facing the crowd. They pelted him 
 with whatever came to hand, till the sentry, being
 
 LABOURS WITH NELSON, RE ILLY, &c. 205 
 
 struck by a big cabbage, levelled his musket, and the 
 crowd flinched. The fellow who hit the soldier was 
 caught, and meanwhile the missionaries rode off 
 unhurt ; but the mob attacked the guardhouse, and 
 would have torn it down had not their comrade been 
 liberated. Two or three versions of this affair have 
 been published at different times, but we follow the 
 statement of the eyewitness, Mr Reilly. 
 
 Prosecuting this same tour, Mr Ileilly had the 
 pleasure of visiting Dun more in company with his 
 friend, and of being introduced to his father and 
 mother. Going on to Holly Mount and to Castlebar, 
 they there learned from Clare that the house of a 
 gentleman, who had become a Protestant after hear- 
 ing Mr Ouseley, had been set on fire, and burned, 
 farmyard and all, while the family escaped by flying 
 in their night-dresses to the fields. At Newport, an 
 attempt to preach was defeated by the violence of the 
 mob. In Westport, Priest Judge assailed Mr Ouseley 
 while preaching to a crowd in the market. At his 
 instigation, a man struck him with a hard black peat, 
 rendered all the harder by being frozen, which almost 
 knocked him down, and left a severe bruise on the 
 whole of the right side of his face. All the rest of 
 the people were quiet, if not friendly. 
 
 In Ballina, a big potato, flung at him, hit Mr 
 Bruce, who stood by his side. One man deliberately 
 took aim with stones, another supplying him. One 
 passed under the arm of Mr Ouseley, as he had it 
 uplifted in speaking, and broke the window of Mr 
 Lundy's house, before which he was standing. Both 
 the men were seized, and one was sentenced to two 
 months' imprisonment. In company with Mr Bruce,
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 he proceeded through the mountains to the wilds of 
 Erris. Mr Bruce's narrative is found at full in 
 Reilly, and we shall give only the substance. At the 
 house of Major Bingham, where they stayed for three 
 days, Mr Ouseley preached repeatedly, besides em- 
 ploying his invariable personal and private endeavours 
 for the benefit of all in the house. On the Sunday 
 they proceeded to Binghamstown, where they found a 
 number of people strolling on the shore, or standing 
 in groups. Father Jordan had just gone into the 
 shebeen - house, after mass, "to take his grog." 
 With his gallant host on one side, and Mr Bruce on 
 the other, Ouseley commenced singing an Irish hymn. 
 The people gathered, and when he began to address 
 them from the saddle in their own tongue, attention 
 was fixed ; and after a while, tears began to roll, and 
 sobs to be heard. Forth came Father Jordan from 
 the cabin, and brandishing his stick, commenced to 
 drive the people away. Ouseley remonstrated, and 
 a desultory discussion followed. Father Jordan 
 soon relinquished this contest, and again applied 
 himself to the stick. "Do not be surprised, my good 
 people," said Ouseley, " at what he is doing. He 
 has sworn oil the holy evangelists to prevent you 
 from hearing me." The priest denied this, but said 
 he was doing his duty. " Oh," said Mr Ouseley, 
 " you need not tell me ; I know your oath as well as 
 you do yourself." Then drawing a book out of his 
 pocket, he read, no doubt, the Forma Juramenti, ap- 
 pointed after the Council of Trent; and to the annoy- 
 ance of the priest, translated it into both English and 
 Irish. Mr O'Donnell, a Roman Catholic gentleman, 
 who had previously heard Mr Bruce, cried out, " We
 
 LABOURS WITH NELSON, REILLY, &c. 207 
 
 must hear what the gentleman has to say. We will 
 wait and hear for ourselves." " Go home," said 
 Father Jordan, "you have heard mass, arid that is 
 enough for you." The squire answered in a way 
 more suited to the character of Father Jordan than 
 to his office, and brought down upon him the ridicule 
 of all who were present. The major then suggested 
 a movement across a little stream, from the other side 
 of which Ouseley continued to preach. Among 
 those present stood one who afterwards was known 
 as the Rev. John Feeley, but was then a zealous 
 Roman Catholic, and a student for the priesthood. 
 While Ouseley held the people in rapt attention, 
 Father Jordan beat an old kettle to drown his voice, 
 and Mr Feeley said he was assisted in this by an 
 itinerant tinker. 
 
 Returning from Erris, Ouseley again met Reilly, 
 and once more passing through Dunmore, he preached 
 by the inn at the corner of a street to a great crowd ; 
 and Mr Reilly says that such a torrent of Irish elo- 
 quence he never listened to. The sermon lasted an 
 hour. On reaching his father's house, the old man 
 heard that some one in the crowd had interrupted, 
 and he was ready to sally forth " to chastise the 
 ruffian who dared, in his own town, to disturb his 
 beloved Gideon." 
 
 At this time his brother Ralph was in the Penin- 
 sula, beginning to win medals and stars ; but even 
 they were not earned by feather-bed service, any 
 more than the less worldly honours that were gather- 
 ins: around the head of Gideon.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 
 
 IN the year 1813, Dr Coke for the last time presided 
 at the Irish Conference, and being on the point of 
 sailing on his final voyage towards India, his heart 
 was full of the claims and prospects of that grandest 
 of his missions. The correspondence of Mr Ouseley 
 shows that, years previously to this time, his own 
 thoughts had turned in the same direction, and that 
 he would willingly have gone forth to labour for the 
 great East. He had some idea that his relative, then 
 Major Ouseley, afterwards Sir Gore, might be able 
 to open his way. When Dr Coke in the Conference 
 asked who was willing to go with him, Gideon not 
 only offered himself, but pressed his brethren to send 
 him, even with tears. They, however, wisely judged 
 that he had already found his sphere ; and however 
 strong might have been his desire at the time, he 
 would seem to have perfectly acquiesced in their 
 decision. 
 
 He was now appointed to the counties of Antrim 
 and Londonderry, with Arthur Noble as his colleague. 
 Some dozen years before this time, when Graham 
 and Ouseley visited Fintoua, in the county of Tyrone,
 
 VARIO US MISSIONAR Y LA BO URS. 209 
 
 a boy of fifteen years was among the crowd who 
 listened to the men with black caps, and Bibles in 
 their hands. Ouseley was the preacher, and his text 
 was, " For the great day of His wrath is come, and 
 who shall be able to stand ? " The boy was moved 
 by the preacher's appearance, by his fervour, and his 
 tears ; who having concluded, just as his horse was 
 moving away through the crowd, again lifted up 
 his voice, and cried aloud, " Fintona ! Fintona ! 
 remember that, on the great day, you will recall to 
 mind that a man, sitting on his horse in the street, 
 warned you to prepare to meet your G-od." The boy 
 was overwhelmed. In secret he sought the Lord, 
 and found His saving mercy ; and now he came to 
 take his place beside " the man sitting on his horse," 
 and to be. his helper for several years, in many a 
 hard but happy day. 
 
 We have no clear tracing of the range of his labours 
 in the years immediately following the Conference 
 of 1813. But the reader already knows enough to 
 feel that he can, for himself, draw the outline of 
 Ouseley's daily course, by that exercise of the imagi- 
 nation which does not invent fiction, but presents 
 facts to the mind though not presented to the senses. 
 We soon find traces of him far down in the South ; 
 for, as before, his nominal sphere was only part of 
 his real one. In his case a very wide expression 
 was really one of the most exact " The kingdom at 
 large." That was the field to which he felt called, 
 and though every now and then some brethren wished 
 to confine him to a " regular sphere," every token 
 told that he was no more made for one fixed round 
 than other men are made for anything else. 
 
 o
 
 2io LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 The controversy which, for several years, agitated 
 and finally divided the Methodist Societies in 
 Ireland, on the administration of the sacraments 
 among themselves, had now come to a crisis. Mr 
 Ouseley, though himself no particular promoter of 
 the change, took a firm and active part on the side 
 of the bulk of the people and the Conference. To 
 abate the evil effects of the division, he wrote, spoke, 
 and, if possible, laboured more than ever. One 
 duty, incidentally arising out of the strife, was a 
 mission to England to procure funds for the support 
 of places, and labourers sorely tried and pressed. 
 
 One of his few surviving colleagues dates his first 
 knowledge of him in the year 1815 the Rev. John 
 Armstrong, now past fourscore years of age, with 
 warm complexion and white hair, and a voice which, 
 strong as it might have been at twenty-five, seldom 
 pronounces the name of Gideon Ouseley but with a 
 thrill, very often preceding it with such words as, "the 
 sainted," "the blessed," or "that man of God." Sixty 
 years have passed since he received the letter signed 
 Gideon Ouseley, telling him, as an accepted candidate 
 for the ministry, to proceed to Ballimena, and join 
 Mr Noble. The first time the young man met his 
 revered superintendent, he asked him for his "plan." 
 " I have no plan to give you, my son ; the country 
 is before you ; go into every open door, and, if 
 permitted, preach, or exhort, and pray, proclaiming 
 the grand truths of our holy Christianity : and 
 while you thus preach with Divine power, and the 
 love of God burning in your heart, you will never 
 want hearers." 
 
 The Rev. J. Poole, of Canada, writes, relating
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 211 
 
 how, in 1816, in the town of Gorey, Ouseley illus- 
 trated a point he was pressing home, by saying, 
 that Ralph Ouseley, the soldier, when recovering 
 from what seemed to have been mortal wounds, 
 wrote telling his sister Peggy, who, on reading the 
 letter, wept bitterly, because of the love she bore to 
 her brother Ralph. But when she heard from the 
 preachers that the Lord Jesus Christ was wounded 
 for her transgressions, and bruised for her iniquities, 
 not a tear did she shed; and why? Because her 
 heart was hardened through unbelief. The people 
 had no idea of who the soldier Ralph, or the sister 
 Peggy, were. The wound alluded to in this remini- 
 scence of Mr Poole was probably one received by 
 Colonel Ouseley in leading his Portuguese regiment 
 in a night attack, late in 1813, when he carried a 
 formidable position against immense odds, but was 
 borne off the field with a bayonet wound in the 
 breast, and a bullet through the body. 
 
 Mr Poole goes on to say that, at another meeting 
 of Ouseley's in 1818, in Carnew, on the borders of 
 Wicklow and Wexford, " his sermon left such an 
 impression on my mind as five-and-fifty years have 
 not erased." The people so thronged that they trod 
 one upon another, and two or three were seated on 
 each step of the pulpit. " While the preacher was 
 speaking of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, such 
 a power rested on the people as I never witnessed 
 before or since." He was obliged to conclude his 
 sermon, and attempted to get among the people to 
 direct the penitents to Christ, but those on the 
 pulpit-steps could not move, and he had to climb 
 over the other side. He directed mourners to look to
 
 212 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Christ, that they might receive remission of their sins. 
 When he came to the Eev. Mr Ffrith, the curate of 
 the parish, he said, " Kneel down, my son in the 
 gospel, and I will pray that the Holy Ghost may 
 come upon you. God will make of you an able 
 minister of the New Testament." Mr Ffrith, as far 
 as was possible for the crowd, bent down, and 
 Ouseley, placing his hands on his head, prayed. 
 That, night he stayed with the curate, of whom it 
 became reported that Ouseley had made a Methodist. 
 The rector, Mr Ponsonby, who lived in a castle at 
 some distance, resolved to remove him ; but several 
 of the nobility and gentry, who happened to reside 
 in the parish, held him in such esteem that they told 
 the rector, if he was dismissed, they would go to the 
 next parish. The curate testified boldly to the great 
 spiritual good he believed that God had sent to him 
 through the agency of the old evangelist. 
 
 This is one of many cases of his sons in the 
 gospel labouring among the clergy of the Established 
 Church. By the time we are now speaking of, the 
 number of deeply pious men in their ranks was 
 rapidly increasing ; and we find, as his course runs 
 on, that almost every year seems to witness a grow- 
 ing intercourse on his part with devoted men in all 
 ranks of the ministry of that Church, from the curate 
 to the bishop. 
 
 In the spring of 1817 he landed at Liverpool, and 
 visited several parts of England ; but we have much 
 clearer traces of a subsequent visit in 1818, from 
 letters to Mrs Ouseley which have been preserved. 
 In this case he was not alone, but had brought his 
 faithful mare with him ; and after the tour had pro-
 
 VARIO US MISSION AR Y LABO URS. 2 1 3 
 
 ceeded for a length of time, he says in one of his 
 letters, that it was of great advantage that he had 
 done so. He was collecting money for the Irish 
 Societies thrown into distress by the results of the 
 division, and now and then notes how many pounds 
 he had got here and there, but only in a word or two, 
 dwelling almost exclusively on the work of God, the 
 congregations, the prayer-meetings, the conversions. 
 We may here remark that one of his phrases, in 
 which he habitually described his twofold proceedings 
 while collecting money, was, " I offer people what they 
 do not like to receive, and ask them for what they 
 do not like to part with." 
 
 He did not admire some of the English towns, but 
 the preachers and people won his heart. Whatever 
 objection his Conuaught brogue and idioms, and his 
 manner, heedless of the conventionalities of either 
 church or meeting-house, might raise up against him, 
 seem to have been forgotten except with the few 
 who can never overlook such things under the influ- 
 ence of the overwhelming religious power attending 
 his appeal to the heart and conscience. The places 
 in which the greatest spiritual effects appear to have 
 followed his labours were Leeds and Hull. Two 
 gentlemen, then youths, in the former town, after- 
 wards connected with the press in London, have told 
 me of the results they then beheld. One, still 
 among us, my venerable friend Mr Gawtress, says he 
 never witnessed such a revival of religion. He re- 
 calls to this day the cases of some of the most heed- 
 less people in the town, belonging to different ranks, 
 who were converted; and, in particular, remarks 
 upon the stability of the converts as contrasted with
 
 214 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 the prophecies ventured upon by many at, the time. 
 The other was the late Mr James Nichols, the learned 
 printer of Hoxton Square, who repeatedly bore a 
 precisely similar testimony in conversation with my- 
 self. He printed the second edition of Ouseley's 
 " Letter to Priest Fitzsimmons of Ballymena," which 
 was at this time his nominal home. 
 
 York and Howden are both mentioned in Ouseley's 
 letters as places in which he saw good done, more 
 particularly the former. But in Hull, he was evi- 
 dently more and more rejoiced ; and thirty years 
 afterwards, some of the best Methodists in that town 
 used to speak with gratitude of his labours. He 
 dates one letter from the home of the noble Mrs 
 Bealey of Eadcliffe Close. Chester and Liverpool are 
 spoken of with satisfaction, and in the latter place, 
 the "vast and grand" Brunswick Chapel evidently 
 struck him, in contrast with his mountain and village 
 congregations. He does find time just to mention 
 that on his way to spend a night with Dr Adam 
 Clarke, at St Helens, the forewheel of the coach 
 flew off, and his right wrist was a little strained by 
 the fall; "but I can now write." Though I find 
 no mention of Halifax in his own papers, a visit 
 of his to that town, in 1817, is mentioned in the 
 " Methodist Magazine" for 1840. "His ministry was 
 owned of God in a peculiar manner, and a blessed 
 revival of religion commenced." A long letter, 
 addressed to him from the Rev. Marshall Claxton, 
 dated Shrewsbury, 1818, describes with great joy the 
 result of his labours there : " Poor, dull, dead Shrews- 
 bury has come in remembrance before God." 
 
 In a letter from "YYolverhampton, he mentions
 
 VARIO US MISSIONAR Y LABO URS. 2 1 5 
 
 Bunbury, Aston, and Nantwich as among the places 
 where he had laboured. He tells of a young woman 
 who ran away from him when she first met him at 
 Nantwich, but afterwards walked five miles to hear 
 him, and five miles back. The Rev. John Burdsall, 
 in writing the obituary of Mrs Wolstencroffc, of Man- 
 chester, in the "Methodist Magazine " for 1831, states 
 that she was converted through the influence of the pri- 
 vate conversations of Mr Ouseley, while a guest at her 
 father's house, on his visit to Nantwich. At Wel- 
 lington, he found what he calls a " cold society," 
 but " the Lord awoke many." Notwithstanding the 
 associations of Mrs Fletcher's old chapel, he found 
 Madeley a poor village, and at Broseley was glad 
 that the people gathered in spite of a terrible storm. 
 The name of the last place reminds me that a gentle- 
 man in my own neighbourhood, to whom I happened 
 to speak of Ouseley 's papers, told me that his mother, 
 " a dear old saint of eighty," living near Broseley, had 
 told him that she found peace with God on the 
 occasion of the visit of Ouseley, the Irish missionary, 
 to that town. As to Wolverhampton, he says that 
 " blessed preacher, Mr Millward," and his dear wife, 
 lamented that not so much as an Amen could be drawn 
 out of their dead souls ; but a tolerable congregation 
 came to hear the Irishman, which was visited by the 
 power from on high. Mr Millward invited those who 
 were under deep impressions to meet him the next 
 day. "We had a fine company of awakened souls." 
 It is often remarked that spiritual children bear 
 some sort of family likeness to the father in the 
 gospel, and one of the sons of Gideon Ouseley mani- 
 fested through a lifetime of considerable length,
 
 216 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 and great individuality, not a little of his spirit. The 
 following is from Coley's " Life of the Kev. Thomas 
 Collins : " 
 
 " In the year 1818, Gideon Ouseley, the famous 
 Irish missionary, preached at Eedditch. His word 
 was clothed with much Divine power. The heavenly 
 flame melted many. Thomas, just entering on his 
 ninth year, was there. Under that mighty ministry 
 his heart, prepared by grace prevenient, broke utterly. 
 The public service closed, but he would not leave. 
 Touched by such inconsolable sorrow, Ouseley him- 
 self led him into the house of the Rev. John W. 
 Cloake, with whom, and with the father, the holy 
 man continued in prayer until the tears of the weep- 
 ing child were wiped away ; and he indubitably 
 received the spirit of adoption. The glad memory of 
 that hour never failed. Warm gratitude to the in- 
 strument of God never grew cold. The portrait of 
 the venerable evangelist formed always one of the 
 few adornments of his private room. Life through, 
 that parlour was esteemed sacred. One of his last 
 visits in Redditch was paid in order that once again 
 he might offer praise upon the very spot where that 
 joy unspeakable thrilled him first." 
 
 At this time Ralph, then Colonel Ouseley, was 
 serving Portugal in Brazil, and the following few 
 sentences from a letter dated Pernambuco, 29th July 
 1817, show that he had the old British spirit: 
 
 " The brig Calliope, from Messina, R. Goodwin, 
 master, run aground yesterday evening near the bar, 
 and was lost. Fortunately, however, the crew and 
 greater part of the cargo were saved by the indefati- 
 gable exertions of the colonel, who is governor, and
 
 VARIO US MISSION AR Y LA BO URS. 2 1 7 
 
 who instantly put the troops under arms, and repaired^ 
 in person to the spot, where he assisted from five 
 o'clock in the evening till twelve at night, often up 
 to his chin in water, and in danger of being dashed 
 to pieces. 
 
 " When pressed to quit his most fatiguing and 
 perilous situation, he said, * No ; for Britons never 
 failed their friends in a breach ; and there is some differ- 
 ence between wading in blood and in salt water.' 
 * Can I forget,' said he, ' Salamanca, Roderigo, Badajoz, 
 Vittoria, St Sebastian ? No ; I shall never leave an 
 Englishman in his distress.' This reply redoubled 
 every exertion, and had the happiest effect." 
 
 After Mr Ouseley's return from England, we find 
 letters from the South to his beloved colleague, the Rev. 
 John Armstrong, in which facts and feelings crowd 
 so fast, that he can hardly find time for letters, or 
 in the letters find expression for what he has to say. 
 Writing on 22d February 1819, he states that he 
 had not been able to see his dear wife since last 
 November but once. He was hurried night and day, 
 for in the last ten days no less than four hundred 
 persons had joined the Society in the counties of 
 Wicklow and Carlow, while in the few weeks pre- 
 ceding that time, hundreds more had done so in 
 different places which he names. He gratefully 
 mentions the usefulness of different preachers, 
 especially of Mr Andrew Taylor, and " a blessed, fine 
 young man, Fossey Tackaberry," then a local preacher. 
 He said that the Society at Arklow, which was only 
 40 at the last Conference, had increased to 200 ; that 
 in Bandon they had added about 200 ; that in Cork 
 he had been greatly encouraged ; and nearly all the
 
 2i8 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 principal circuits in the South are mentioned as 
 being in the enjoyment of a remarkable visitation 
 and blessing from on high. 
 
 Mr Reilly, writing after this visit, says, " I can- 
 not express my astonishment at the work in Arklow 
 and Wicklow since you and Brother Noble were 
 there. The most extraordinary conversions I have ever 
 seen or heard of have taken place in this country." 
 
 One of Mr Ouseley's letters to William Hamilton 
 tells how George James, a boxer at Wicklow, came 
 to the meeting on the evening of Christmas day, 
 being under engagement to serve as " second " to 
 another boxer, John Connor, in a match taken for 
 the following, or St Stephen's day ; and how " the 
 Lord mercifully struck him." That night, George, 
 with his wife and several others, joined the Society. 
 On reaching home, he set off to Connor, and said, 
 " I must not go with you to that bad work. No, no, 
 I must not go. I have put it out of my power for 
 ever; and have joined the Methodist Society." 
 
 Connor found another second, and fought out his 
 match desperately. " But last Monday night this 
 same Connor came up with tears streaming down 
 his face, and requested me to enter his name as a 
 member of the Society." He adds, that " on Satur- 
 day morning last one hundred joined," and concludes 
 by demanding from Hamilton " a long letter small 
 writing and closely written." 
 
 Mr Reilly adds, that a second visit was followed by 
 similar results; and Noble becoming exhausted, 
 Ouseley says, " Brother Reilly has been on a short 
 tour with me in Brother Noble's place." Reilly, on 
 the other hand, says, that the short tour was one
 
 VARIO US MISSIONAR Y LA BO URS. 2 1 9 
 
 through all the counties of the south of Ireland, and 
 lasted six weeks. In the course of it, he admired 
 Mr Ouseley more than ever. 
 
 Mr Thomas Barber, speaking of Newtownbarry, 
 describes his labours there. " He preached oa 
 Monday morning, and after preaching held a prayer- 
 meeting, as he had done the evening before, when 
 others professed to have found peace with God. His 
 mode of preaching that morning was very peculiar, 
 and did great execution among the people. His sub- 
 ject was the opposition between the flesh and spirit, 
 as mentioned in Galatians v. 19. l Every person 
 under the dominion of the flesh/ said Mr Ouseley, 
 1 is possessed by a monster with seventeen mouths, 
 every mouth seeking food suited to its nature.' He 
 here named the mouths. The people appeared horror- 
 struck, and many of them roared aloud for mercy. 
 The result of this meeting was sixty members added 
 to the Society." The returns of the Conference for 
 that year showed an increase in the Societies in 
 Ireland of three thousand five hundred members. 
 
 It is about this time that Mr Reilly fixes the con- 
 version of Philip Rorke, a man about fifty years of 
 age, who could not read, though belonging to several 
 confraternities in the Romish Church. He had heard 
 some Methodists near Borrissokane read the Bible, 
 and wondered, and was to some extent enlightened. 
 He heard Ouseley, and was impressed. He repeated 
 many rosaries, but was still troubled in spirit, and 
 went on vainly seeking rest. He applied to priest 
 after priest. One said to him, " Go to Loch Dergh ;" 
 another, " Go to Lady's Island; " another, li Receive 
 the Lord's body."
 
 220 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 11 Does your reverence think you can make the 
 Lord's body for me ? " 
 
 " I have that power, Philip. Can you doubt it?" 
 
 " Then, your reverence, I have two little hens, but 
 no cow. Now, if you can turn them into two milch 
 cows for the children, to give us milk, I shall 
 believe you have the power you say." 
 
 " Get a'gone ! get a'gone ! " 
 
 And so ended Philip's connection with the priest. 
 Ouseley got him spectacles and a spelling-book, and 
 Philip lived a witnessing disciple, in his artless way, 
 praying and talking with his neighbours, so that they 
 " would rather have him than the priest." 
 
 In 1822, during one of Mr Ouseley's visits to 
 Sligo, as he was preaching to a crowd in the street, 
 Priest O'Connor dashed up on horseback, and using 
 his whip, scattered the people. That evening, in 
 the old chapel by the river-side, Ouseley took down 
 the names of forty persons who joined the Society. 
 Among these was William Graham Campbell, then 
 a lad, who sometime afterwards found peace with 
 God under the ministry of the late Rev. John 
 Holmes. Mr Holmes once told me that a person 
 in Dublin asked him if he called Mr Ouseley 
 eloquent, a very natural question on the part of 
 any one who took elegant language, graceful 
 delivery, or polished composition, as essential to 
 eloquence. Mr Holmes replied, " Eloquence is often 
 defined as the art of persuasion ; and, judging 
 by that rule, will you tell me of another man so 
 eloquent as Mr Ouseley?" He then went on to 
 say that, once, at a large meeting, somewhere in 
 the county of Fermanagh, where several preachers
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 221 
 
 were delivering able sermons, Mr Ouseley unex- 
 pectedly appeared. When called upon to address 
 the people, he began in his own fashion, by saying, 
 " If you knew where there was a crock of gold 
 hidden, that might be got by digging and searching, 
 you would spare no labour to find it;" and he 
 could tell them where there was a crock of gold. 
 And Mr Holmes said it^was not long before he had 
 the whole of the people in tears, " and he did more 
 good with his crock of gold than all of us had done 
 with our fine sermons." 
 
 In 1824, he heard that the noble race of his 
 beloved Charles Graham was drawing to a close. 
 To the last he had laboured according to his 
 strength, and not fainted. As late as 1817, the 
 Lord had given him, as a spiritual son, that 
 same John Feeley who witnessed the scene at 
 Binghamstown in Erris, when Ouseley contended 
 with Father Jordan. According to his own state- 
 ment, Feeley had been such an earnest Romanist 
 that, whenever he passed a Protestant place of worship, 
 he put up a prayer for the destruction of the heresy; 
 but he afterwards became one of the ablest and 
 best of Ouseley's helpers, sweetly speaking the Irish 
 tongue, and adorning the gospel in his walk. His 
 training for the priesthood had left a stamp upon 
 his physique which never forsook him ; and, but for 
 the more open countenance, to his dying day, he 
 would have been taken for a priest. How he did 
 revere the memory of Charles Graham ! 
 
 Ouseley was naturally much moved by the tidings 
 that the comrade of the earliest years of his career 
 was about to pass over to the triumphant host. He 
 dreamt that there was to be an ordination, and
 
 222 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Graham was the man to be ordained, and that he 
 was called upon to state his character. " I spoke 
 aloud, and said, ' Brother Graham's character is that 
 he always did promptly, and with all his might, 
 everything he conceived to be right to promote the 
 glory of God and the good of the cause he was 
 engaged in. This ye all know.' ' Having related 
 this in his letter, he proceeds, " Yes, Charles, we have 
 seen happy and prosperous days together; and many 
 a time were we refreshed together of God, so that 
 we were filled with joy unspeakable and full of 
 glory, which, when I now think upon, my eyes 
 begin to overflow." He then rejoices in the hope of 
 their meeting " in our Father's house above, never, 
 never to be severed again," in which hope he is 
 joined by " my Harriet, who loves you much." 
 
 The Rev. John Nash says, " I shall never forget 
 my first meeting with him, on my first circuit, 
 Newtownbarry, in 1824. I had just arrived at the 
 house of an humble farmer at Old Ross, when Mr 
 Ouseley rode into the yard. Having put up his 
 horse (as was our usage), rubbed him down, and 
 given him some hay, he entered the house. How 
 lovingly did he salute each member of the family, 
 even to the youngest child ; go into the kitchen to 
 speak to the servant-girl ; inquire for the absent ; 
 and then proceed to his life-work ! Sitting down, he 
 inquired of each individually concerning his or her 
 spiritual state, not passing by myself ; and then gave 
 us some happy incidents of his own experience. He 
 preached that evening to the roomful of neighbours, 
 and he laboured to win those few as if they were a 
 thousand
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 223 
 
 * With cries, entreaties, tears to save, 
 To snatch them from the gaping grave.' 
 
 Rising from the concluding prayer of the first service, 
 with seeming inadvertence he stepped to the door, 
 and placed his back against it ; and commenced to 
 sing a verse of a hymn. He related his own con- 
 version, and its effects ; and then called on each to 
 state what they believed their position to be in regard 
 to God and eternity. Were they yet in their sins ? 
 Careless ? Unawakened ? and so on ; and lovingly 
 and entreatingly , ' with tears,' pressed on them to 
 * close in ' at once with the offers of salvation made 
 to them. 
 
 " One evening, in Dundalk, he preached with 
 remarkable power and effect. The next morning, 
 while we waited in the street for the coach by which 
 he was to leave, a military officer came up to us, and, 
 shaking hands most cordially with him, expressed his 
 admiration of the sermon and its effect on the 
 previous evening. The venerable man took him 
 instantly by the arm, and, walking him backward 
 and forward, applied the truths to his heart and 
 conscience. The officer had strolled into the chapel 
 in plain clothes. 
 
 " "When on the Castlebar circuit, I had a visit 
 from him there and in "VVestport. In the latter 
 place he preached to a very respectable congregation, 
 and engaged to preach the next morning at eleven 
 o'clock. We walked to the Mall, where the chapel 
 stood, a little before the hour. Turning the corner, 
 he raised his hat, and commenced to sing a hymn, 
 in the Irish language, to a very plaintive air. Soon, 
 several people ran together to see what was the
 
 224 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 matter ; and in a short time about twenty of the 
 lowest class gathered, and followed us. When 
 he stopped outside the gate, a motley group faced 
 him. Most were disposed to interrupt ; but his 
 manner, and the affecting expressions in the Irish 
 tongue, held them in suspense. He sang another 
 verse, which evidently touched them ; and then some 
 loving Irish thoroughly arrested them. At several 
 expressions women curtsied, and men raised their 
 hats, and very soon deep feeling was manifested. 
 Amongst the group was one man who particularly 
 engaged my attention. Tall, gaunt, and haggard ; 
 in rags, and without a coat ; with a most forbidding 
 countenance, ready, you would say, for any act of 
 atrocity ; for some time I feared he was bent on mis- 
 chief." Gradually, his countenance began to change, 
 and he seemed to quail under the earnest appeals. 
 At last his lip quivered, he raised his tattered hat 
 from his head, and, with eager eyes riveted on the 
 blessed man, he drank in every word. I never wit- 
 nessed anything like it. The picture rises in my 
 memory to this day. At the outskirt stood a poor 
 beggar-woman. She held her little wallet before 
 her. The tears ran down her pallid face, her eyes 
 fixed on the preacher while he spoke of the love of 
 Jesus for them. Just at this moment an oysterman 
 turned into the Mall, singing out his wares; I 
 feared his noise would break up our interesting work, 
 but, seeing the group, he quietly walked up to us, 
 led by curiosity. For some minutes he stopped, 
 heard words in his own tongue, and saw their effect 
 on his fellows. Apparently as his instinct dictated, 
 he pursued his accustomed course, leading his horse
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 225 
 
 to the upper end of the Mall, still keeping his face 
 turned toward us ; then returned, having utterly 
 forgotten to cry or sell. He stood, and looked, and 
 listened ; and deep were his emotions. Eleven 
 o'clock had then nearly come ; but Mr Ouseley, 
 seeing the poor fellow, addressed him specially. 
 What a sight it was to see the tears run down his 
 rugged face, and the tattered skirt of his old coat 
 raised to wipe them off ! The preacher invited them 
 into the chapel " to hear more." Not one followed; 
 but, as he retired, earnest blessings were given him 
 by all that group, the wornten curtseying, and the men 
 lifting their hats, and amongst them all, the most 
 earnest were the oysterman, the beggar-woman, and 
 the tall, fierce-looking, ragged man. 
 
 We find, about this time, in the Methodist Maga- 
 zine, an extract from the Rev. George Morley, de- 
 scribing Mr Ouseley preaching in the street of Trim 
 to sixty or eighty people in the market. Reading 
 the Douay version of the Bible, he made Mr Wilson 
 read the authorised one, and comparing the two, 
 commented upon them to the people. One of his 
 allegations was, that every point of the Protestant 
 faith could be proved from the Roman version of the 
 Scriptures. Mr William Banks mentions the same 
 proceeding in the streets of Athy, with this differ- 
 ence, that Mr Ouseley there read the Irish Testament, 
 while he made Mr Edward Banks and another read 
 the authorised and Douay versions alternately, and 
 he commented upon them. 
 
 The following statement of one of his street diffi- 
 culties, which appeared in the Sunday at Home, from 
 the pen of a clergyman of the Church of England, has
 
 226 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 left no trace in his own papers ; but that is his way. 
 Only few of them would have been heard of, but for 
 others : 
 
 " In the town of Roscommon, where I lived in 
 1812, I first saw Gideon Ouseley. It was on a 
 Saturday, the market-day, when numbers of the 
 peasantry round flocked to the town. About noon a 
 stranger rode on horseback into the market-place, a 
 man not beyond middle age apparently, but of grave 
 and venerable aspect. He was dressed in black, with 
 long black gaiters, and a velvet cap on his head. 
 Looking about him, as if considering where to go, 
 he turned his horse toward a dead wall, which 
 belonged to a tobacco factory, the gable-end of which 
 abutted on the street side, with a trap-door through 
 which goods were hoisted. Having backed his horse 
 against the wall, he took from his saddle-bags a Bible 
 and a hymn-book. His appearance and proceedings 
 had attracted the notice of many people, who already 
 formed a semicircle in front of him. In youthful 
 curiosity, I was standing close to his horse's head. 
 Opening the hymn-book, he read a hymn, and, giving 
 out two lines, each verse was sung to a plaintive, 
 familiar air, in English and Irish alternately, 
 thus : 
 
 ' Behold the Saviour of mankind 
 
 Nailed to the shameful tree ! 
 How vast the love that Him inclined 
 
 To bleed and die for thee ! ' 
 
 The unwonted sounds soon attracted a crowd, and 
 the latter verses, in the Irish at least, were sung 
 with loud, sweet melody. After the hymn, he 
 offered an earnest prayer, and then, taking his Bible,
 
 * VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 227 
 
 he read some verses, and began to address the multi- 
 tude. He had not proceeded far when the trap-door 
 overhead was opened, and some men looked out. 
 Suddenly a large pail of tobacco -water was dis- 
 charged by these evil-doers upon the preacher, and 
 the door was closed. What ensued I could not see, 
 having been blinded for a time by some of the acrid 
 fluid getting into my eyes ; but I heard a great 
 tumult. Some of the crowd climbed the wall, deter- 
 mined to punish the perpetrators of this outrage. 
 The meeting was dispersed in the confusion, and, 
 on my recovering, I had the pleasure of taking Mr 
 Ouseley home, and my father insisted on his remain- 
 ing the next day. A fortnight after he returned, on 
 a Saturday also, with a companion ; and the two on 
 horseback addressed a large and deeply interested 
 audience, without molestation, and with much 
 acceptance. What results of his labour appeared 
 in Roscommon I am unable to say, having shortly 
 after to leave for Trinity College, Dublin; but the 
 work of Gideon Ouseley for forty years in every part 
 of Ireland was much celebrated, and is worthy of 
 being now brought to public remembrance." 
 
 Another clergyman of the Church of England, the 
 Rev. Dr Spencer of London, states that he cannot 
 forget his first sight of Ouseley. On a Sunday in the 
 winter of 1829, coming from church in Irvinestown, 
 in the county Fermanagh, in company with " the 
 young Irvines my schoolfellows," they were arrested 
 on their way to the castle by the appearance of a 
 man with a velvet cap, on a chair, in the act of 
 giving out the text, " Without faith it is impossible 
 to please God." " Utterly impossible," said the old
 
 228 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. * 
 
 man, and proceeded to preach. Dr Spencer subse- 
 quently often had " the great privilege of meeting 
 him with and without his brother Sir Ralph Ouseley." 
 He often also met " that truly good man Mr Noble, 
 and noted down their wise saws." 
 
 One of the few cases in which the authorities sided 
 with those who offered him violence, occurred in 
 Dublin in 1815. He had been preaching in Oxman- 
 town Green, and Mr Bonsall coming up found a 
 riot beginning. One of Rooney the brewer's dray- 
 men flung a stone, which struck a peace-officer, and 
 Bonsall succeeded in arresting him. He, however, 
 and two others who had been seized, were discharged 
 by Mr Walker, the recorder, without trial ; for he 
 said that the preacher was the rioter, and that he 
 would gladly have punished him ; he also reproved 
 Dixon, the peace-officer, for not having arrested him. 
 The counsel for the prisoner was the gentleman who 
 became the successor of Mr Walker in the recorder- 
 ship, afterwards Sir Jonas Green. 
 
 In one of Mr Ouseley's hasty letters about this 
 time, we find a notice of Summerfield, who became 
 really celebrated in America as a preacher : "I never 
 heard such a young man for his time ; no, nor for 
 any time. Crowds ran after him everywhere. He 
 is humble and holy. I pray God to keep him so." 
 
 One of the few exceptions to the rule, that no 
 trace of street assaults exists in his own papers, 
 occurs in June 1819. When writing to Mr Bonsall, 
 he tells how, when preaching in a fair at Monaghau, 
 the rabble had attacked him, he tried all his arts of 
 conciliation, but in vain. When he was beginning 
 to move off, " the stroke of a cudgel fell on my mare,
 
 VA RIO US MISSIONARY LABO URS. 22 9 
 
 and she flew off, you may be sure, as did Noble also. 
 Showers of stones came flying after us, but through 
 mercy we escaped uninjured. Our hats, which flew 
 off in the struggle, they beat heartily. Noble did not 
 get his, but mine was brought to me with some holes 
 in it." In the very next breath he says, " Almost 
 every day since I wrote last I have had the unspeak- 
 able happiness of witnessing the awakening of precious 
 souls." 
 
 It is in the year 1820 that we first find him mak- 
 ing any mention of medical treatment. Writing to 
 his dearest love, as he generally called Mrs Ouseley, 
 then in Dublin, he confesses that he had been in 
 affliction ; but then the friends take such pleasure in 
 attending upon him ! However, it comes out that 
 he has had, for two days past, " twelve skilful 
 lancers " at him, but they were not foes, only friends, 
 and took away nothing good, nothing but what was 
 corrupt; and they relieved him. Still he acknow- 
 ledges that his head felt like a cracked egg-shell. 
 
 It was about this time, and not very far from 
 Monaghan, that he became known to the Rev. Charles 
 O'Neill Pratt, then a boy, the late Vicar of St 
 Paul's, Burslem, who was never tired of talking about 
 him, and left behind him the following memorandum 
 prepared for this biography : 
 
 "My father, the Rev. William Henry Pratt, 
 was Vicar of Donagh, in the diocese of Clogher, 
 county of Monaghan. He had known Gideon Ouseley 
 for many years, and was much attached to him. My 
 father, who had distinguished himself as a scholar 
 in the University of Dublin, and was a man of 
 brilliant wit, could thoroughly appreciate the scholar-
 
 230 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 ship of Gideon Ouseley, and his rich store of sanctified 
 humour. But he valued him most for his fearless 
 advocacy of the gospel, in the midst of daily dangers, 
 which might be almost spoken of as daily deaths. 
 
 " My father's vicarage was always open to Gideon 
 Ouseley when he was travelling in the north of Ireland. 
 No guest was ever more welcome at the house of any 
 man, than was this good man at the vicarage. 
 
 " My first impression of Gideon Ouseley gave me 
 the notion of a man of great determination of 
 character and physical power, with a hearty, genial 
 disposition, which made every one about him feel at 
 ease. He always wore thick cord breeches, with 
 top-boots mahoganies ; and his dress was that of a 
 man who spent a great portion of his time on horse- 
 back, and was constantly exposed to all sorts of 
 weather. The first time I saw him about the year 
 1820 he rode up to our house, and, as there did not 
 happen to be any man about the place, he took his 
 stout pony cob to the stable door, unstrapped his 
 little travelling valise from behind his saddle, took 
 off the saddle and bridle, gave the pony a drink, 
 put a head-stall on him, and took him into the stable. 
 I am not sure that he did not first partially groom 
 him. Then, when he and my father got together, 
 what an endless flow of conversation would go on I 
 
 " I remember his one blind eye ; but the blemish 
 was soon forgotten in the clearness of the other, which 
 beamed with intelligence, and even drollery. As a 
 child, however, I could at the same time estimate his 
 deep and earnest piety. I have seen him at our parish 
 church of Glasslough, about three miles from the 
 vicarage, receive the Lord's Supper from my father's
 
 VARIO US MISSIONAR Y LABOURS. 23 1 
 
 hands ; and, with very few exceptions, all the other 
 communicants were Wesleyans. My father's clerk, 
 Billy Walker, was a local preacher and a class-leader, 
 and so was good old Robert Cherry, band-master of 
 the Monaghan Militia, the staff of which was 
 quartered in Glasslough. (Colonel Charles Power 
 Leslie, M.P. for Monaghan, and first cousin to the 
 Duke of Wellington, commanded the regiment. 
 His son, Colonel Leslie, M.P. for Monaghan, com- 
 mands it now, 1870.) There were also several pious 
 men among the staff-sergeants, who were class-leaders 
 or members in the Methodist Society. These men 
 never absented themselves from the Lord's table. 
 On the particular Sunday I allude to, Mr Ouseley 
 preached in the morning, in the little Methodist 
 chapel, before church service ; and after service he 
 got on the steps of the market-cross in the village, 
 and, having put on his black velvet cap, preached to a 
 congregation including my father and all the families 
 of the church congregation, the Presbyterians, who 
 had just come from meeting, and a goodly number of 
 Romanists, who had come from mass. For the 
 benefit of the latter, he now and then spoke in 
 Irish. 
 
 " I recollect him visiting our house on one occasion 
 when a young lady, Miss M'Dermott, was supposed 
 to be dying of consumption. I remember how ear- 
 nestly he prayed by her bedside, and how he kissed her 
 at parting, as he did also my stepmother, my aunt, 
 and sisters. Indeed, it was his custom, and the kiss 
 of peace generally went round whenever he came or 
 went. 
 
 " I can remember my father expressing his regret
 
 232 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 at the decision of the Methodist body to celebrate the 
 Lord's Supper in their own places of worship ; and I 
 have an idea that, subsequently, we did not see so 
 much of Mr Ouseley ; but of this I am sure, that there 
 never was any estrangement between him and my 
 father. I believe that, for many years afterwards, 
 they corresponded and met as warm friends. 
 
 " I can remember that, fifty years ago, about the 
 only decided Christians in my father's parish were 
 the Methodists. He used to take us all often to see 
 an old couple in the village of Glasslough Mr and 
 Mrs Barber, then nearly eighty years of age persons 
 who had often spoken to, and heard John Wesley. I 
 began my ministry in October 1836, in my father's 
 parish ; and there were no people whom I then found 
 so earnest as the Methodists ; and, even then, with a 
 few exceptions, they stuck to the Irish Church. 
 
 " The last time I saw Mr Ouseley must have been 
 in 1820 or '21, after which I went to school. The 
 occasion of his visit was a melancholy one. My father 
 had lost his eldest son, a fine young man, who died 
 in New Orleans of yellow fever. I was too young to 
 understand it all, but I recollect Mr Ouseley's com- 
 forting my father and the family with great affec- 
 tion." 
 
 The stories associated with the name of Mr Ouseley 
 have often a touch of the grotesque, sometimes due to 
 his own humour, sometimes to his regardlessness of 
 conventional manners, and sometimes to the rudeness 
 of those with whom he had to do, or the strange circles 
 in the midst of which he acted. The following tale, 
 though strange, is not more so than many which were 
 frequently repeated in the neighbourhoods where he
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 233 
 
 had been known. Mr Graham Campbell, who 
 had it from an eyewitness, thinks that the occur- 
 rence took place in 1820, it was in the county of 
 Limerick : 
 
 " Mr Ouseley took his stand in the street, near a 
 butcher's stall, to preach ; but immediately the stones 
 began to fly, and some of them struck Mr Ouseley, 
 and cut him desperately. He went into Mr Ruttle's, 
 a Palatine, where he lodged ; and, after washing off 
 the blood, he went a second time to the same spot, 
 and began to preach, when the stones began to fly 
 again. But the ringleader saying, l Let us not 
 kill him,' immediately seized a pig, and, having 
 gagged its mouth, he held it by the tail, while the 
 screams of the animal were so loud as completely to 
 drown Mr Ouseley's voice. At length the pig became 
 exhausted, and then Mr Ouseley began again, and, 
 suddenly stopping, called the butcher to him, and 
 said to him, ' My good man, the Lord will extort a 
 cry from you as loud as the cry of that pig.' The 
 man soon fell, and raised one of the most unearthly 
 screams ever heard from human voice, and continued 
 it for a considerable time. All thought he was 
 possessed with an evil spirit, and strove to raise him, 
 but could not. The priest was then sent for, who 
 brought a whip, and laid it on him with all his might, 
 but all to no purpose. He still roared aloud, until 
 exhausted. He was at last dragged into his own 
 house. None [afterwards] would venture to go near 
 him, or to purchase at his stall. So he had to leave, 
 and go to reside in Limerick, and finally to the county 
 Carlow, where some of his children are well-to-do 
 in temporal matters, but under a name somewhat
 
 234 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 changed, and all thorough Protestants. The old man 
 never returned to the Church of Rome." 
 
 About this time we find a letter from Portarlington, 
 and it may have been on the same visit that the 
 Rev. J. Hughes took into his memory the impression 
 which he has reproduced in the following picture 
 a picture which seems to me to present Gideon 
 Ouseley in private, exactly as I have often heard 
 him spoken of by those in whose house he had 
 stayed. 
 
 The Rev. John Hughes writes: "My first remem- 
 brance of him goes back to my very early youth. On 
 a raw November evening, he preached at the corner 
 of the street in which we resided in Portarlington. 
 After preaching, he came into our house for some 
 refreshment, and to wait until his time came again 
 to preach in the chapel. When he took a seat in 
 the little back apartment, it was dusk. A turf fire 
 played fitfully, and there was no other light. I 
 crouched in an obscure corner, and Ouseley thought 
 himself alone. He took off his cloak and hat, ejacu- 
 lated ' My blessed Master ! ' and wiped the perspira- 
 tion from his head and face. He then poked the fire, 
 and spread himself out before it. After musing a 
 minute, he wept. Tear after tear rolled down his 
 rugged cheeks. He repeated, in a low but distinct- 
 voice, the first two verses of the 210th hymn : 
 
 ' Thee will I love, my Strength, my Tower ; 
 
 Thee will I love, my Joy, my Crown ; 
 Thee will I love with all my power, 
 
 Iii all Thy works, and Thee alone; 
 Thee will I love till the pure fire 
 Fills my whole soul with chaste desire.
 
 VARIO US MISSION AR Y LA BO URS. 2 35 
 
 'Ah, why did I so late Thee know ! ' 
 (Here he smote his forehead with his big hand.) 
 
 ' Thee, lovelier than the sons of men ! 
 Ah, \vhy did I no sooner go 
 
 To Thee, the only ease in pain ! 
 Ashamed I sigh, and inly mourn 
 That I so late to Thee did turn ! ' 
 
 < ; Thus far, memory serves me clearly. I have a 
 hazier, yet still a tolerably satisfactory remembrance 
 that he repeated the third stanza ; and then, in his 
 strong, hoarse voice he sang the fourth : 
 
 'I thank Thee, uncreated Sun, 
 
 That Thy bright beams on me have shined ; 
 I thank Thee who hast overthrown 
 
 My foes, and healed my wounded mind ; 
 I thank Thee ' (louder) l whose enlivening voice 
 Bids my freed heart in Thee rejoice.' 
 
 " He preached that night to a crowded house from 
 Galatians v. 19-21, dwelling forcibly on 'the seven- 
 teen works of the flesh.' There was a sprinkling of 
 Romanists in the congregation ; and there were two 
 there Tom Dunne and Biddy Whitefield who had 
 been Eomanists, but who were then, and who con- 
 tinued, until peaceful death, to be exemplary Metho- 
 dists. 
 
 " My last remembrance of Ouseley dates from 
 1838. I had come to Mountrath on a bitterly cold 
 winter morning, just in time to commence the usual 
 Sabbath service. The congregation was small, and 
 the chill depressing. Just as I had given out a verse, 
 before announcing my text, Ouseley came in. I 
 suppose he had lodged with a friend outside the town 
 on the Saturday night. He waited until the verse
 
 236 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 was sung, and then came up the aisle, saying, ' Come 
 down, John.' I gladly vacated my stand, and 
 Ouseley preached that morning and met the class. 
 He spent the Sabbath with us at Mr John Lyster's, 
 and seemed cheerful, but was evidently feeble. 
 
 " The late Mr Henry Bournes, of Crossmolina, told 
 me that Mr Ouseley came to his house on a very wet 
 day, late in the autumn. Being engaged to dine 
 with a gentleman of the neighbourhood, he merely 
 threw off his outer wrappings, saw his horse groomed 
 and fed, and walked out in all the rain to dinner. 
 He returned to Mr Bournes's in time to preach. 
 He retired to his room early, having ridden forty 
 Irish miles upwards of fifty English that day. 
 He would not allow his clothes to be removed from 
 his bedroom to be dried. Next morning Mr Bournes 
 heard him singing a hymn. He knew that Ouseley 
 usually began the day with sacred song, but thought 
 it strange he should sing but two lines at a time, 
 with pauses between the couplets. He got out of 
 bed, looked into the street, and saw Ouseley standing 
 on a block, addressing a company of labourers, who 
 were waiting to be hired for the potato digging. 
 
 " Pat M'Donagh, a half-converted Romanist of 
 this vicinity (Monastereven, Queen's county), could 
 have supplied many an anecdote of Ouseley. He 
 was a man of shrewd wit, far-reaching thought, and, 
 alas ! the immoral life of despair. He was but a 
 labourer. His children were bitter Papists. He 
 yielded to home persecution, went to mass, drank. 
 Yet his aspiration ever was, like that of the friar 
 over Bedell's grave, ' Let ray soul be with Ouseley 's, 
 wherever it be ! ' "
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 237 
 
 Mr Ouseley speaks of Mr Feely as the right kind of 
 Irish preacher, and says, that he preaches from thirteen 
 to fifteen times a week. On the other hand, Feeley, 
 speaking of him, exclaimed, " Oh, how did he labour 
 in prayer, both before and after these services ! . . . 
 Often have I seen him weep, and agonise, and wrestle 
 with God." 
 
 In September 1824, the Sligo Journal tells how a 
 fellow rushed furiously up -certain steps, where Mr 
 Ouseley was standing to preach, in Monaghan, and 
 struck him so violently on the breast, that respiration 
 for a time was suspended. He attempted to repeat 
 the blow, but was seized by the people. When able 
 to speak, Ouseley's first word was, " Do him no 
 harm ; he did it because he was drunk." In 
 December of the same year, the Kerry Evening Post 
 indignantly describes how the magistrates of Kilrush 
 were, as it says, driven out of court by the violence 
 and menaces of a Koman Catholic clergyman, when 
 they would themselves have wished to protect 
 Ouseley who had been assaulted in the streets. He 
 had now gained a point at which the Protestant 
 press, as a rule, warmly defended him. But the 
 case related by the Kerry Journal is one which illus- 
 trates the condition of public justice at that time, 
 when the priest chose to interfere. The magistrates 
 were browbeaten by the priest at two sittings, and pre- 
 vented from acting according to their view of the case. 
 
 When the controversy respecting Eoman Ca- 
 tholic emancipation approached its crisis, he fre- 
 quently took part in it by letters in the newspapers, 
 or by pamphlets ; and to the surprise and perplexity 
 of all his friends, though a strong opponent of
 
 238 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 emancipation, propounded a scheme for taking priests 
 into the pay of the Government. One of the many 
 correspondents who sought information and advice 
 from him on public affairs was the Honourable 
 Henry Maxwell, the member for the county of Cavan, 
 in one of whose letters we find the following words, 
 touching the proposal in question : " I cannot agree 
 with you. I consider it a malum in se, and a most 
 inexpedient measure." In the same letter, Mr 
 Maxwell speaks of the evidence of Dr Doyle before 
 the Parliamentary Committee, which has now become 
 more celebrated than ever since the publications of 
 Mr Gladstone on the Vatican Decrees. One observa- 
 tion of Mr Maxwell's illustrates the need of having 
 men who practically know Komanists to judge of the 
 effect and value of what they say, a function in which 
 ordinary Englishmen are, all over Europe, noted for 
 being rather more than defective. Mr Maxwell 
 regrets his own absence when the evidence was given, 
 for after the statements of Dr Doyle, disclaiming views 
 usually ascribed to Roman Catholics, as to the power 
 of absolving subjects from allegiance, and other con- 
 comitants of Papal Infallibility, he felt that some such 
 question as the following ought to have been put : Such 
 being your sentiments with respect to these errors, is 
 it your practice, and that of the Roman Catholic 
 priests in general, to undeceive the minds of their 
 flocks in respect of them ? 
 
 In 1826, Mr Ouseley writes from Cavan with great 
 delight, stating that he had seen the church crowded, 
 and sixty-three Romanists recanting the errors of 
 Popery, making 257 in all ; that he also had heard Mr 
 Pope, then a famous controversial orator, address u
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 239 
 
 large audience for two hours. The Keformation 
 movement, as it was called, then proceeding in the 
 neighbourhood of Cavan, owed much to the influence 
 
 * 
 
 of Lord and Lady Farnham, whose guest Ouseley 
 occasionally was, and with whom he corresponded, 
 holding them in hearty respect. 
 
 Public discussions between Protestant and Romish 
 champions were, at this time, very popular. One 
 which was to take place in Deny appears to have 
 had particular interest for Mr Ouseley. He feared 
 beforehand that the Catholics would flinch, and this 
 proved to be the case. When he visited Deny 
 immediately afterwards, he states that the fact of 
 the priests having done so, " opened their people's 
 eyes, so that they now came in crowds to hear." 
 Shortly after this, he was in Dundalk, and in a ball- 
 room preached to a great crowd, among whom was 
 the truly noble and good Lord Roden, with his 
 family, " and an immense mass of the lower orders, 
 although the priests had been threatening them." 
 Mr Marmion, a political speaker, created a disturb- 
 ance at the close, but Mr Ouseley was escorted home 
 by a magistrate and the police. We are not told at 
 what particular period of Mr Ouseley's life it was 
 that, in this neighbourhood, an event occurred, which 
 procured him the honour of a notice in the biography 
 of a celebrated highwayman. All that is stated is, 
 that this worthy, being on the watch one night, heard 
 the tramp of a horse, and was on the alert; but, 
 recognising in the figure the well-known Methodist 
 preacher, he knew that there was no loot, and let him 
 pass unheeded. 
 
 From this time forward we find invitations pour-
 
 240 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 ing in upon him, in most of the places where he 
 goes, to the houses of persons of consideration both 
 among the clergy ^and laity; and he occasionally is 
 able to accept of them. He seems to have antici- 
 pated Pius IX., for in 1827 we find him announcing 
 and preaching a sermon on the Infallible Protestant 
 Faith. About the same time, he mentions with grati- 
 tude the exertions of Dr Henry Cooke, the memorable 
 champion of Orthodoxy in Ulster; for he regarded 
 the purgation of the Presbyterian Church as certain to 
 be productive of much good. 
 
 He does not seem to have preserved letters, those 
 that exist being mostly such as he received late 
 in life, and such as might have remained in the 
 hands of Mrs Ouseley, or Mr Bonsall, without any 
 intention on his part to preserve them. There is one 
 affectionate letter from Dr Bunting, in 1828, invit- 
 ing him to Manchester to take part in the anniversary 
 of the Missionary Society, and saying that Mr Watson 
 and himself thought the good cause would be greatly 
 served by such a speech at each meeting as they had 
 heard him deliver at the Conference in Belfast. Then 
 comes the only case in which he mentions having 
 shared with others the responsibility of any debate. 
 This was in Omagh in 1828, at a Reformation meet- 
 ing, when three priests set themselves forward as 
 champions of Rome. On the Protestant side were 
 " the Rev. Messrs Jones and Athill, Captain Gordon, 
 and myself." Mr Reilly gives a good reason why he 
 was not found among those holding formal discus- 
 sions. The priests refused to meet him. His " Old 
 Christianity " had taken more people from them than 
 any book of controversy published within the memory
 
 VARIO US MISSION AR Y LABO URS. 24 1 
 
 of man, and his oral feats were to them a familiar 
 cause of anxiety. 
 
 The visit paid to Manchester was a source of great 
 enjoyment to him. He felt the cordiality of his 
 reception. Visiting York, Leeds, and Bradford, he 
 found traces of his former labours. Very many 
 persons called him father, and earnest applications 
 were made for visits here and there. The secretary 
 of the Missionary Society in Hull, Mr North, writing 
 to invite him, says, " You have many friends and 
 spiritual children in Hull, who would rejoice to see 
 you once more." One of his brief remarks is, " The 
 Protestants of this side of the water are filled with 
 apathy about Popery, as if the case were hopeless, or 
 not worthy of notice." 
 
 Mr Hay narrates, as he received the account from 
 Mr Waterson, an attempt at the wholesale destruction 
 of Mr Ouseley and his congregation, in Bloomsbury 
 Chapel, Tradeston, Glasgow. Mr Ouseley, he says, had 
 preached in the street, in the neighbourhood of the 
 chapel, and at the close announced that he would 
 preach in the chapel at night. The Sunday school 
 had been held as usual in the schoolroom under the 
 chapel, and had been dismissed by Mr Waterson, the 
 school superintendent, who saw everything in its 
 proper place before he left, and who noticed that the 
 lire in the stove, near the centre of the room, had 
 nearly burned out. In the evening, the chapel was 
 crowded long before the time of service ; and Duff us, 
 the chapel-keeper, about half-past five, went down to 
 the schoolroom for some forms. The only way to 
 the schoolroom was by a stone stair, by the side of 
 the chapel nearest the river. When Dufftis reached
 
 242 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 the first window of the room, he was surprised by a 
 glare of red light, and on hastening into the room 
 he found the stove filled with blazing coal, and 
 almost the whole of the four sides in a red heat. 
 The table was close up to the burning stove on one 
 side, and on its opposite side was a long form, placed 
 on end, and reaching up to the ceiling, and as close 
 to the stove as it could be. Duffus quietly removed 
 the table and form to a safe distance, raked out the 
 burning coals, and secured the room against further 
 intrusion. That night a man was found in the gal- 
 lery with a horse-pistol in his possession. 
 
 The Rev. John Liddy states that he remembers 
 hearing Mr Ouseley speak of having seen Dr Chal- 
 mers on this visit, and that when he observed that 
 one great evil in Christian Churches in our day 
 was a lack of discipline, the Doctor replied, " You 
 are right, Brother Ouseley." To us the " Brother " 
 does not sound Chalmerian. But the Doctor's great 
 heart was as warm as his own, and he may have 
 slipped into the way of speech which he knew and 
 felt was like the man. 
 
 In 1829, he mentions, with pleasure, labours in the 
 neighbourhood of Ballina, and says that in "West- 
 port he was entreated to return; also that the Bishop 
 of Killala had personally been very kind, and given 
 him two guineas to assist in building a chapel. " It 
 is pleasing to see such crowds everywhere, and the 
 blessed effects produced ; only in Dublin am I lum- 
 ber." The plain language of this last sentence gives 
 one a key to otherwise obscure hints scattered here 
 and there among his letters, which thus interpreted, 
 show that he was very conscious that the Dublin
 
 VARIO US MISSION 'AR Y LA BO URS. 243 
 
 people did not relish his rough-and-ready preaching; 
 and he evidently sometimes thinks that Dublin 
 preachers also did not give him a welcome. We do 
 not know the particulars of the case, and cannot judge 
 how far he or they were to blame. On the one hand, 
 it is very probable that many of them may have been 
 incapable of overlooking the drawbacks of his man- 
 ner, for the sake of the religious benefits of his 
 labours. On the other hand, it is quite possible that 
 he was not fully aware how unlikely he was, in per- 
 manence, to keep up city congregations, being as 
 unsuited to that work as the men whom he found 
 doing it were to accomplish, by occasional visits, 
 those great results which made his own path through 
 the country like a fertilised furrow. 
 
 Writing from Tuam in 1830, he says that for 
 several years not .a drop of his blood had been spilled; 
 but that the evening before, being assailed by a shower 
 of stones, turf, dirt, and eggs, many of them had hit 
 him; and one turf striking his mouth, "made me 
 bleed, a little." However, he did not desist from 
 preaching, and closed his outdoor service with solemn 
 prayer. The fact is, two teeth were knocked out. 
 But as soon as it was possible he proceeded, pausing 
 now and then to relieve himself of blood. Dean 
 Seymour, of Tuam, in a communication to the Rev. 
 Oliver M'Cutcheon, mentions that, when he first 
 commenced his labours in the cathedral town, the 
 people often quoted the words of Gideon Ouseley, 
 who, being there when the Roman Catholic cathe- 
 dral was being erected, told the men that they were 
 not building it solid enough ; and when they asked 
 why, said that they would have Protestant clergy- 
 men preaching in it one day. And Dean Seymour
 
 244 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 says that when the people saw some movements in 
 his own missionary experience, they often said the 
 prophecy of Gideon Ouseley would one day be fulfilled. 
 
 On one of his tours through Galway, in company 
 with Mr Feeley, crossing the country after heavy rain, 
 they had to wade a stream; "down went my mare 
 suddenly, and while she plunged, off I tumbled, and 
 was thrown on my back in the water." Mr Feeley 
 coming up to help, " down he and his little Rosi- 
 nantewent." However, they both gathered themselves 
 up, " nothing hurt that signified." 
 
 Part of a letter is found without the date or the 
 name of the person to whom it was addressed ; but 
 we can scarcely doubt that it was to the Rev. John 
 James at the Mission House in London. It contains 
 messages to Brother and Sister Edwards, Dr Townley, 
 Mr Morley, and to kind Mr and Mrs Hunter, a well- 
 known surgeon in Islington. It speaks of an inflam- 
 mation of the liver, of sixteen teacups of blood being 
 taken from the arm, of thirteen leeches, and a blister. 
 "Here I lie in peace, upon a bed of doubtless salutary 
 affliction, under the care of a kind wife, and a merciful 
 Father who neither slumbers nor sleeps." A letter fol- 
 lows from the Rev. John James, affectionately convey- 
 ing, on the part of the Missionary Committee, an expres- 
 sion of sympathy with Mr Ouseley in his afflictions. 
 Not long after this serious note of failing health, 
 comes the statement that, when leaping his mare 
 across a fence somewhere in Roscommon,she stumbled, 
 and something in his heel gave way with a loud crack. 
 It appeared that the Achilles tendon was broken; and 
 though he hardly ever mentions the accident or its 
 effects afterwards, he never ceased to suffer from them. 
 In 1831, speaking of a visit to Mohill, in the county
 
 VARIO US MISSION AR Y LA BO URS. 245 
 
 of Leitrim, he says that he was cordially received at 
 the house of Mr Norris, a magistrate; but, as no 
 place to preach in was opened, he was on the point 
 of setting off. " 'However,' said I, l the sky cannot 
 be taken away,' " and under that kindly roof he 
 sought and found a large congregation. After this 
 he procured a large schoolroom, and preached, as 
 usual, night and morning, seven sermons in all. 
 Shortly afterwards, returning to Mohill, we find his 
 congregation in the street "as attentive as if the 
 priest was the preacher," and indoors such a crowd 
 that he came out as wet as if he had been in the 
 river. But next morning he was just as fresh as 
 ever, and exclaims, " Delightful toil ! " He now 
 dined with the rector, and breakfasted with the 
 curate, and had to decline the invitation of Colonel 
 Walsh a variation upon some of his experiences. 
 
 In June of 1831, while passing along the street 
 of Armagh, a man came up to him, and taking him 
 by the hand, said, " It was in the county of Mayo 
 I heard you, sir, and now I and my family are Pro- 
 testants, thank God." As another reminiscence of 
 Mayo, and also as a specimen of the letters he 
 often received, but of which he preserved scarcely 
 any, we may give the following, signed by some one 
 of the name of M'Greal. If we touched one word of 
 its English it would be less like its author, and less 
 like what Mr Ouseley heard and read every day. 
 The letter is without date : 
 
 " A LETTER TO MR GIDEON OUSELEY, Preacher of the Gospel. 
 
 " SIR, It is my intention to state to you, in as accurate a 
 manner as I possibly can at present, the true cause of my con- 
 version from Popery. In the year of our Lord 1812 or 1813, I
 
 246 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 was in the fifteenth year of my age. It happened on a day, I 
 believe, in the month of November, as I returned from school, 
 
 I saw a large crowd standing on the street of W . I went 
 
 to see what was the cause of it. When I drew nigh I beheld two 
 gentlemen preaching the ' glad tidings ' to the people. I imme- 
 diately inquired as diligently as possible what was their motive 
 in preaching to the people ; but I could not learn. I paid the 
 greatest attention to what I heard, and in a few moments I heard 
 you, sir (for you were one of the gentlemen), express these 
 words : 
 
 " ' There is no other name given among men whereby we can 
 be saved,' &c. ' Is this possible,' said J, ' that what he says is 
 true ? If it be true, I am wrong ; but if I am, the world is so 
 as well as I.' It was not long after until I saw the priests lash- 
 ing the people away ; and I ran away also, and gave myself a 
 great round on my way home, in order that I might avoid seeing 
 the priests. I sat myself down to think on what I heard. 
 ' But,' said I, ' the priests know better than any person. And 
 why should I imagine that these gentlemen should be as know- 
 ledgeable as the holy servants of God ? But, then,' said I again,- 
 ' how well they did not hold their tongues when the priests came 
 present ! That is one great instance to think they had truth on 
 their side. Well,' said I, ' I shall return to them again.' I came 
 back the same way, and found the priests and the most part 
 of the people gone. I found myself very happy. I thought 
 and listened with attention to every word that was said. At 
 length I heard you say, sir, you would preach that evening in 
 the preaching-house. I then made the best of my way home. 
 I was asked what delayed me, but gave some frivolous excuse, 
 which satisfied my parents for that present. 
 
 " Coming on the hour you appointed to preach, I told my 
 parents I would be very willing to go see a young man, my rela- 
 tive, who was going to college. At length, to please me, they 
 allowed me to go. But my object was to go to the preaching- 
 house. I got a large, loose coat, and wrapped myself in it, in 
 order that no person should know me ; and on going into the 
 preaching-house I hid myself in the darkest portion of it. 
 When you began to preach, you set forth sin in all its colours, 
 and showed its enormity in the sight of God ; but what struck 
 me more than all [else] I heard was, you raised up your hand,
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 247 
 
 and pointed to me, and said, ' Blessed be the Lord, you are here 
 to-night ! ' I thought you stared me in the face, while you 
 brought to my recollection every sinful deed I ever did. I got 
 ashamed, and would give anything in my possession to be outside 
 doors. I also thought some persons must have told you all 
 about me, whilst I was getting into the remotest corner. I 
 thought every eye ought to be fixed upon me, through the means 
 of your pointing to me and telling me all I ever done. When 
 preaching was over, and that you pronounced the blessing, I 
 thought you prayed for none else than me. I returned home, 
 and I was asked some questions about my friend ; but I an- 
 swered nothing lest I should be guilty of a lie what I never 
 before thought to be sinful, but that night I heard him [the 
 liar] ranked with the adulterer, fornicator, and murderer. 
 
 "At that time I was deprived of every means that would cause 
 me to get forward in the knowledge of the Saviour. First, I 
 being too young to make steadfast resolution ; and secondly, 
 having no opportunity, being always at school. But when I 
 arrived at the nineteenth year of my age, I was taken from 
 school ; and, being one day alone, there came in a young man, 
 a neighbour's son, who had a few leaves of a Douay Testament. 
 I took the book into my hands, and opened it, and read that text 
 in the First Timothy, 'There is one God, and one mediator be- 
 tween God and men, the man Christ Jesus.' I got astonished. 
 But, in a word, it brought everything I heard in the street and 
 in the preaching-house to my remembrance. I made a firm 
 resolution then, and said I would and should see more about it. 
 I set to work, and spent very near two years in reading and com- 
 paring books, and seeking after the works written by the ablest 
 advocates on both sides. 
 
 " At length that work of yours fell into my hands, entitled 
 ' The Defence of Old Christianity.' In this volume ended all 
 my pursuits in the discovery of truth and error. After a study 
 of near two years, I embraced the Reformed Church, and then 
 encountered persecution on every side. Argumentarians, both 
 lay and divine, thought to confound me. My father brought 
 three priests together on me ; but, to their shame, I possessed 
 the "Word of Truth, which they could not withstand. A friar 
 assailed me at another time in his presence. I asked him at 
 length, ' Is the Babylon of the Revelation Rome ? ' He answered,
 
 248 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 1 Yes, but it is Rome heathen.' ' If so,' said I, ' the inhabitants 
 thereof ever since must have been devils, and every unclean 
 bird.' He was struck dumb, but stood up and blessed and 
 crossed himself, and then swore on his breviary no man out of 
 his Church could be saved. I said, ' Thank you, sir, but I am 
 not convinced.' 
 
 " In a few months after there came a young man whose name 
 
 is Peter F . This young man's parents took every pains to 
 
 prepare him for the office of a priest, and intended to have him 
 sent to Maynooth College. He asked me several questions con- 
 cerning my conversion, and said he was very sorry for it, such pro- 
 ceedings to be taking place in me. But I soon let him under- 
 stand the Church of Rome, which he was intended to be a pastor 
 of, could in no wise bear examination by that unerring stan- 
 dard, which is the Word of God. I immediately produced the 
 Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and pointed 
 out her principal errors. I then told him I could not trust the 
 salvation of my soul with any Church which taught such doc- 
 trines, contrary to the Word of God. I also produced your 
 ' Defence,' and left him to peruse it, which he did, and kept it 
 for three weeks, during which time he compared both versions 
 of the Scriptures, and saw plainly the errors of Popery. He 
 embraced the Established Church, and I trust is no disgrace to 
 her members. 
 
 " Opportunity would not allow me to state every occurrence 
 that afterwards happened, especially through the channel of 
 degradation. 
 
 " I remain, sir, with the greatest respect, your most obedient 
 and humble servant in the Lord Jesus." 
 
 In 1831, Mr Ouseley mentions a young man who 
 heard regularly during a visit to Mohill, and whom the 
 priests offered to send free of expense to their Eng- 
 lish College, and have him ordained; but refusing 
 to go either there or to Maynooth, he went to Trinity 
 College, Dublin, and out of seventy-three candidates 
 for entrance, took the first place. He also mentions 
 a priest who, after hearing him in Ballyjaraes-
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 249 
 
 duff, came to call upon him. They had much 
 free and friendly conversation, and the priest cor- 
 dially invited him to his house ; " but I had to go 
 forward." 
 
 The next day we find him at Ballinamore, preaching, 
 in all, four times. He states that, in the market of 
 Killashandra, in a great crowd there was nothing 
 but peace and goodwill, satisfaction beaming on their 
 faces, and no distinction being perceptible between 
 Romanist and Protestant. While at prayer every 
 head was uncovered. He confesses that he lay down 
 pretty tired, but meaning to be off early again for 
 Ballinamore, and to preach by the way ; but ac- 
 knowledges that the excessive rain had prevented 
 him. 
 
 In 1832, when his threescore years and ten had 
 come, we find strong expressions of gratitude for the 
 recovery of his brother Ralph, who was then, evi- 
 dently, with Mrs Ouseley, coupled by earnest solicitude 
 for the welfare of his soul. He says that in Brook- 
 borough, from which place he writes, a great work 
 of God was going on ; and that last Sunday upwards 
 of thirty souls found peace in Enniskilleu, and more 
 than twenty in Irvinestown. That day he had 
 preached twice in both of these places, twice or three 
 times on Monday and Tuesday an odd uncertainty 
 of memory, especially after so short an interval, for 
 he was writing on the Thursday. On the Tuesday 
 evening he had an immense crowd in Maguire's 
 Bridge ; on the Wednesday morning, in the market 
 there, a peaceable crowd. At night, a great company 
 in a country place, and also the following morning. 
 " My health stands it amazingly." He rejoices to
 
 250 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 see the throngs that come "to hear me once more;'' 
 and cries out, " For thirty years past no such work 
 has been seen in this country. 
 
 " ' O Jesus, ride on till all are subdued ! ' " 
 
 Iii . another of his hasty notes to that dearest love 
 u hose presence seems to have always followed him, 
 rejoicing that Ralph has had time granted for the 
 great preparation, he exclaims, " What a wonderful 
 mercy that, in the day when we thankfully submit 
 to Christ to be His disciples, the book of our former 
 follies is closed, never to be opened against us while 
 we continue to learn of Him ! " The next letter 
 shows him to be in Queen's County, at Abbeyleix. 
 He sends loving words of grace to Ralph, and then, 
 "Accept all my affections yourself, my own dear wife ; 
 and may the Lord, who has again restored you to 
 me, bless and keep you day by day to the end ! Good- 
 night past twelve ! Yours again, G. 0." 
 
 A fortnight later he is at Baltinglass, where he 
 hears of "wars and rumours of wars" at Dunlaven, 
 in Wicklow. The police and a troop of horse had 
 been employed from three in the morning, and 
 apparently all day, " in pulling down what the people 
 called pinnacles ; that is, mounds on high ground 
 for signals. The people sounded horns, rapidly 
 assembled, and built them up again." About three 
 miles from the town the crowds faced the police, to 
 whose aid twenty yeomen hastened, and an express 
 came into the town for the dragoons. Before the 
 latter reached the ground, the leader of the insurgents 
 had been seized, and afterwards thirteen more were
 
 VARIO US MISSIONAR Y LA BO URS, 2 5 1 
 
 caught. Notices were put up in Dunlaven that, 
 unless the prisoners were released, the people would 
 rise and murder all before them. The cause of the 
 disturbance is stated in a word. " The cattle were 
 seized by the police and army for tithes, and, in spite 
 of the people, will be sold. I saw a letter to-day with 
 the magistrate, who read it for me, saying that a great 
 seizure of this nature had been made [evidently in 
 another locality] ; and a host of soldiers and police, 
 upwards of seven hundred, were present, with two 
 pieces of cannon, and many thousands of the peasantry ; 
 but the cattle were sold, and the people durst not 
 stir." 
 
 Ouseley looked no farther than the obvious truth 
 that the law was to be obeyed, and if resisted, must 
 be enforced ; and thus for him the whole of the wrong 
 lay on the side of those who resisted the law : but 
 to a distant spectator, it was a case in which both 
 the peasantry and the police were to be pitied ; and, 
 perhaps, still more the clergy for whose support the 
 temporal arm was stretched out. 
 
 As illustrating Mr Ouseley's notion about giving 
 State payment to the priests, Mr Campbell tells that 
 in 1833, when the former visited him at Boyle, they 
 went together to Buckingham Castle, where Lord and 
 Lady Lorton were delighted to see Mr Ouseley. His 
 lordship said, " I have read your letters in the * Sligo 
 Journal,' and I must say that I do not agree with 
 you in recommending the Government to pay the 
 priests." 
 
 " But, my lord, if you throw a bone to a dog he 
 will not bite you." 
 
 " Yes, Mr Ouseley ; but it would be a violation of
 
 252 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 principle, such as is condemned in Scripture, namely, 
 doing evil that good may come." 
 
 " Not at all, not at all ! " 
 
 But his lordship shook his head. However in- 
 disposed to adopt Mr Ouseley's political notions, 
 Lord Lorton showed his kindly feeling a few days 
 afterwards, by sending him a ten-pound note, beg- 
 ging him to spend it in circulating his tracts. On 
 the same occasion, the two missionaries went to the 
 house of Archdeacon Oldfield, " one of the best of 
 men," in whose parochial schoolroom Mr Ouseley 
 preached. The archdeacon always welcomed Metho- 
 dist preachers, and ascribed his own conversion, under 
 God, to the instrumentality of an old Methodist 
 woman in Lurgan. He did not believe that it would 
 be better for the Church if Methodism were extin- 
 guished; although such a theory, till tested by practice, 
 seems not only plausible, but self-evident. But in 
 practice, it has always proved that where " the Church" 
 existed alone, it languished : in England, letting the 
 people slide back towards irreligion; in Ireland, let- 
 ting them lapse into Romanism; and in the colonies, 
 letting them take very much the form that circum- 
 stances prescribed. Side by side with Methodism, and 
 other forms of Christianity, Anglicanism exerts a 
 spiritual and moral power much greater than it ever 
 did alone ; and probably the same remark would 
 apply, if not with equal, yet with considerable force, 
 either to Methodism or any other of the several 
 systems which are but variations of the Catholic 
 whole. Unity placed in the construction of the fold, 
 is a poor substitute for that unity which lies in the 
 person of the Shepherd and the nature of the sheep.
 
 VA RIO US MISSION AR Y LA BO URS. 253 
 
 Our next trace of the septuagenarian evangelist 
 is in a letter to the Rev. Theophilus Lessey, which is 
 begun at half-past eleven at night. ll After all the 
 blessed business of the day," he cannot write very 
 long, especially as he has to preach at half-past six in 
 the morning. He had apparently parted from Mr 
 Lessey at Cork. Then he went to Killarney, and 
 preached in the evening in the street, some hearing 
 attentively, some yelling loudly. He then preached 
 indoors, and the next morning " both out and in." 
 He sent a short letter in Latin to the Roman Catholic 
 bishop, enclosing a copy of his reply to a challenge 
 of Father Tom Maguire, with another of his pamphlets 
 on the case of the Hon. and Rev. Mr Spencer, then a 
 recent convert to Romanism. He had also sent a 
 tract on Transubstantiation to the curate. 
 
 After this he spent three days in Tralee, preaching 
 both in the street and in the chapel every day. " I 
 sent Priest M'Henry a piece for his edification." 
 On his journey, on a Saturday, a priest sat next to 
 him, probably on one of Bianconi's cars. "Although 
 I upset every position of his, he only cleaved all the 
 more to me, so that we were like brothers. He 
 bought my book, ( The Plot Opened,' a three-shilling 
 book." He states that his heart is set on having 
 Scripture readers employed, and hopes that Mr Lessey 
 will lend a helping hand to "good and kind Mr 
 Bunting " in procuring sanction and aid. 
 
 The Rev. Dr Robinson Scott says, " I was 
 first introduced to Mr Ouseley in the house of Mr 
 John Love, Banbridge, which was his home dur- 
 ing his visits to that town. He greeted me with a 
 fatherly affection, and spoke to me words of wisdom,
 
 254 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 which, although not now remembered, I then deeply 
 felt. 
 
 " On that and subsequent occasions, I was much 
 struck with his zeal, aptitude, and power in parlour 
 preaching. His loving and tenderly sympathetic 
 spirit seemed to gain the confidence of every one ; 
 and the veneration with which he was regarded 
 added greatly to the force of his words. He did not 
 so much talk about religion in general, as about the 
 religious experience of the individual. ' Is your soul 
 happy in Jesus ? Are you sure you love Him ? ' or 
 words to that effect, I have often heard him address 
 to persons when introduced to them for the first time ; 
 and, when his words seemed to take effect, he was not 
 the man to leave the work half done. With a masterly 
 skill, and yet a loving hand, he would probe every 
 sore to the bottom, but would so pour in the healing 
 balm that the patient himself longed to know the 
 worst of his case, that he might have a perfect cure. 
 In these personal appeals, he never overlooked the 
 servants of the household where he was a guest. 
 His special efforts for their salvation were often 
 the subject of remark, and not a few of them was 
 he permitted to number among his children in 
 Christ. 
 
 " My recollection of one of the sermons I heard 
 him preach is still quite vivid, and from what I can 
 learn, I believe it was a tolerably fair specimen of 
 his preaching on ordinary occasions. He was not 
 inattentive to the precise meaning of his text, but he 
 made no attempt at elaborate exposition. In the 
 early part of the discourse, he dwelt upon the love of 
 Christ to sinners, upon how able and willing He is
 
 VARIO US MISSION AR Y LABO URS. 255 
 
 to save now, and upon the fact that He is now as 
 truly going about to seek that He may save, as when 
 He dwelt among us in human flesh in Palestine. He 
 then showed that sinners need this salvation now as 
 much as then nay, more; that their condemnation is 
 now greater, because of the clearer light of the blessed 
 Spirit whom they have so much grieved. When he 
 had thoroughly arrested the attention of the congrega- 
 tion by this course of general remark, he entered on 
 what seemed to me his special forte in preaching 
 namely, that of describing particular characters, and 
 adopting the truth to them. In the chapel to which 
 I refer, the men and women sat apart. Looking 
 first to the men's side of the house, and as if fixing 
 Ids eyes on particular persons, he began to describe 
 imaginary characters, under familiar names, as James, 
 John, Thomas, &c. James was a decent worldling, who 
 for decency's sake would go to church or preaching, 
 and would like to have just so much religion as would 
 not require him to come out from the world. John 
 had got a deeper insight into the nature of religion 
 and conversion, but had got so terribly entangled by 
 certain besetting sins, which the preacher particular- 
 ised, that, while he was a man of many resolutions, 
 he was ' unstable as water.' Thomas was the son of 
 pious parents, having had great advantages, but by 
 wicked companions was laughed out of religious no- 
 tions, and, in order to silence the voice of conscience, 
 was trying to be a real sceptic. For each of these, 
 and for others not now named, he had a word in season. 
 Then, turning to the women's side, he had familiar 
 names and descriptions of character peculiar to the 
 sex, not less graphic.
 
 256 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 " To say that this depicting of character was so 
 done as not to give offence, is to say little. It was 
 done with all the feeling of the most tender of 
 loving fathers towards beloved, though erring chil- 
 dren, and sometimes, as it seemed, in a half-apologetic 
 strain, because of the sinfulness common to our fallen 
 nature, and the devices of Satan, who seeks to perfect 
 the ruin in which he has involved our race. His 
 * hits ' at particular characters did seem for a time 
 to amuse some of that class who hear for others rather 
 than for themselves ; and now and again there was 
 a smile, and a nod towards a neighbour, as if to say, 
 ' That's you.' This state of feeling, however, was 
 transient. Conscience soon began to speak. Every- 
 one seemed to be individualised. Involuntarily, there 
 was a restless anxiety exhibited to evade the eye of 
 the preacher, lest the John, or the James, or the 
 Thomas, on one side, or the Jane, or the Emily, on 
 the other, might seem to hit, and mark the person 
 for undesirable notice. As he reasoned, conscience 
 did seem indeed to give its verdict that the preacher 
 was speaking i the words of truth and soberness ; ' 
 and, whether the hearer desired a more convenient 
 season or not, the preacher did not fail to put the true 
 issue ' Now, or never ! ' 
 
 " One incident touching myself I must not omit 
 to notice. During my first year in the ministry 
 (1835-36), I paid a short visit to my home in Ban- 
 bridge. I preached on the Sunday, and it was 
 announced that I would preach again on the Tues- 
 day evening, before leaving for my Circuit early next 
 morning. Meanwhile, Mr Ousel ey came to town ; and, 
 as a matter of course, I invited him to occupy the
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 257 
 
 pulpit in my stead. By an arrangement, however, 
 between him and the friends, it was settled that I 
 was to preach first, and he to follow. In singing, 
 prayer, and preaching, I occupied only forty minutes. 
 He then immediately announced his text, 1 Tim. iv. 
 16: 'Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; 
 continue in them : for in doing this thou shalt both 
 save thyself, and them that hear thee.' I sat behind 
 him in the pulpit ; and he, instead of addressing the 
 people, as was expected, placed me in the position 
 of Timothy, and assumed to himself that of Paul, 
 occasionally turning round to enforce particular 
 counsels upon his * beloved Timothy.' He dwelt 
 upon the care I should take of my soul and of my 
 body, and npon the watchfulness I should exercise 
 over my behaviour both among our Societies and 
 before the world. He urged diligence in study, and 
 in the acquisition of useful knowledge ; and, above 
 all things, that I should be instant in season and 
 out of season in preaching the Word, both publicly 
 and from house to house, enforcing all by the con- 
 sideration that only by such a course could I ' save 
 myself and others.' Of the address generally I can 
 now recall only the outline ; but two of the similes 
 he employed, and the use he made of them, I have 
 never forgotten. * Preachers,' said he, ' are fishers ; 
 they catch men. Some fishers like to have full nets, 
 but do not like the toiling to fill them. If their nets 
 never contained fish but of their own catching, they 
 would be empty indeed. Be not ye like unto them.' 
 Again : ' Preachers are hunters. Hunters do not 
 wait until the game comes to them ; they go in quest 
 of it.' His description of the fowler, with his dog
 
 258 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 and gun, and mud-boots, toiling through morass and 
 over mountain after his game, was so graphic that I 
 should fail to do it justice ; but, just when he had 
 sketched the picture to the life, turning round and 
 addressing me where I sat, he inquired in his deepest 
 and most thrilling tones, ' For what does he toil?' 
 Then, replying to his own inquiry, in a softer voice, 
 and with gestures somewhat theatrical, he added, 
 ' That he may bag a few little birds, and bear them 
 home as the trophies of his gallant exploits ! You,' 
 continuing to address me, ' must encounter greater 
 difficulties, must endure greater toils. You hunt for 
 souls. You need a steady hand, a practised eye, and a 
 brave heart. Quit you like a man. Be a Timothy.' 
 " As to the feeling in the congregation, a mother 
 in Israel said to me immediately after, that at first it 
 was one of sympathy with me that the eyes of the 
 congregation should be directed to me so particularly; 
 but that, as Mr Ouseley proceeded, this feeling became 
 lost in that of an awful sense of the responsibility of 
 preachers of the gospel ; and that, on several occa- 
 sions during the discourse, she could scarcely see an 
 eye that was not filled with tears. This exactly 
 tallied with my own feelings. For a few minutes I 
 sincerely wished I could make my escape unseen ; 
 but soon my thoughts ran in a different channel, and 
 for such an address, I could not but thank God from 
 my heart. Before it was brought to a close, my heart 
 was full. The privilege of the occasion, I felt, did 
 indeed involve additional responsibility; but my feel- 
 ings were so carried captive that I could have fallen 
 on the neck of my venerable preceptor, and embraced 
 him.
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 259 
 
 "Among all the eminent men raised up by God in 
 Irish Methodism, I doubt if any other was ever so 
 successful in winning souls for Christ as Mr Ouseley. 
 Testimonies to this effect I often heard during the 
 early years of my ministry in Ireland ; and during 
 my several visits to the United States and Canada, 
 one time including Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 
 these testimonies were greatly confirmed. Fre- 
 quently I there met with his spiritual children. 
 They were generally persons advanced in life, and 
 deeply experienced in the things of God. They 
 loved to dwell upon his name, and upon the incidents 
 connected with their conversion through his ministry. 
 The case of Mr Patrick Connolly, of New York, a 
 convert from Roman Catholicism, I gave in the 
 "Irish Evangelist" a short time after my return from 
 America in 1858. 
 
 " I have often reflected upon his almost unrivalled 
 power in reaching the consciences and hearts of his 
 hearers, and have contrasted it with that of some 
 who are considered oratorical preachers. The latter 
 have appeared to me like a man with a large sledge- 
 hammer, dealing tremendous blows at random against 
 a huge rock, only to receive a rebound from the un- 
 conscious block without any material result; while 
 the former seemed like a man with a much smaller 
 implement, looking out carefully for a particular 
 vein in the rock, and, by one skilfully-directed stroke, 
 splitting it with the greatest ease, and illustrating 
 God's own saying, ' Is not my Word a hammer that 
 breaketh the rock in pieces?' 
 
 " His appeals were generally accompanied by re- 
 markable unction. His tears often flowed copiously;
 
 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 aud while his voice, at the time I heard him, as 
 described above, was husky, it often became tremu- 
 lous with emotion, and was then exceedingly tender 
 and insinuating. His style was perfectly colloquial, 
 as well as sententious and direct; and when he 
 would sometimes address his audience as ' children,' 
 it seemed as natural and fitting in him to do so, as 
 for ordinary men, even of equal age, to address them 
 as 'brethren.' ' 
 
 The Rev. J. W. Mackay writes as follows : 
 " "When I was a little boy, my father lived in that 
 barony of the County Monaghan that adjoins both 
 Cavan and Louth. The great bulk of the population 
 was Roman Catholic and Irish-speaking. Mr Ouseley 
 occasionally came there. A poor drunken creature, 
 who was well known as ' Paddy the Friar,' attempted 
 to interrupt him on one occasion. He stopped and 
 said, ' that if there were questions to ask or objections 
 to propose, he would hear aud reply to them at the end 
 of the service, but would not permit himself to be 
 turned aside from his discourse.' Paddy disappeared, 
 however, before Mr Ouseley's sermon was concluded. 
 " I was at that time impressed by Mr Ouseley's 
 manner as seeming to have one business in hand, aud 
 to take hold of every opportunity for engaging in it 
 addressing personally every member of the family 
 whom he could influence by some kind, pointed in- 
 quiry, exhortation, or advice. I cannot forget how, 
 one day, just before he bade my mother good-bye, he 
 spoke to me about being born again, referring to our 
 Lord's conversation with Nicodemus, explaining 'that 
 which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is 
 born of the Spirit is spirit,' by reference to Paul's 
 treatment of the flesh and the spirit in the fifth
 
 VARIOUS MISSIONARY LABOURS. 261 
 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians ; then kindly 
 urging rue to pray for this Spirit, he put his hand 
 upon my head, saying some encouraging words to 
 my mother as to my future. Some years afterwards, 
 at a love-feast in Shinrone, which he conducted in 
 company with the Rev. Samuel Downing, he was the 
 first Methodist preacher at whose call I engaged in 
 public prayer. 
 
 " I was in Parsoustown when he spent a week in 
 that town in 1834 or 1835. The then rector of the 
 parish, Mr M'Causland, took considerable interest in 
 his visit, and had several ministers to meet him at 
 the glebe. He preached every evening in the Metho- 
 dist chapel to large congregations. There was at the 
 time an evangelical movement in the church, in which 
 Mr Trench, then perpetual curate of Cloughjordan, 
 was chief leader. Mr Darby also, and Mr Edward 
 Synge, were actively engaged in calling the attention 
 of some of the upper and middle classes to spiritual 
 concerns ; but their efforts were very much marred by 
 the kind of Calvinism that mixed itself up with all their 
 teachings. One evening, when some seven such clergy- 
 men were present, Mr Ouseley, in his sermon, supposed 
 the Lord to address some young Calvinist just entering 
 the ministry, in the language of the great commission, 
 ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
 every creature,' and then himself accosting the young 
 clergyman who had been so personally addressed, he 
 inquired, ' What would you say, child ? what would 
 you say ? Would you hesitatingly say, " Yes, Lord, 
 but I don't believe that doctrine"?' I think it 
 was in the same sermon he quoted the first and great 
 commandment as presenting both duty and privi- 
 lege ; and the brief comment impressed my memory
 
 262 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 '"Thou shall love with all thy heart," affection- 
 ately; "with all thy mind," intelligently: "with all 
 thy soul," passionately; "and with all thy strength," 
 the energy of all thy powers.' 
 
 " A young man who was then altogether thoughtless 
 and unconcerned about his soul, went with some like- 
 minded companion to hear Mr Ouseley. Before enter- 
 ing the chapel they had been indulging in some 
 frivolous mirth, and he had got into such an im- 
 moderate fit of laughter, that decency would not per- 
 mit him to enter for some minutes. He was that 
 evening deeply convinced of sin, joined the Society 
 immediately afterwards, endured some opposition from 
 his relatives, but held fast faith and a good conscience, 
 and is to-day, I believe, a consistent and influential 
 member of the Methodist Church in the Roscrea and 
 Parsonstown Circuit. 
 
 " As well as I can remember, Mr Ouseley did not 
 much resort to preaching in the street during that 
 visit. He did not seem to think it expedient, or to 
 hope for much good result from it at the time. But 
 one day he was persuaded by Mr Synge to take his 
 stand near the monument in the Duke's Square; and 
 I was greatly struck by the manner in which he 
 addressed a large number of people that gathered 
 round him, many of them Roman Catholics. The 
 subject was the importance of searching the Scrip- 
 tures for themselves, and his aim was to show that, in 
 allowing the priests to keep the Scriptures from them, 
 and in taking what they said for scripture, they were 
 acting contrary to their own common sense, and to their 
 common practice in everyday life. He said some- 
 thing to this effect: ' Suppose, children, you all had 
 one father, and that he died, leaving a will. This will
 
 VARIO US MISS ION A R Y LA BO URS. 263 
 
 comes iiito the hands of an attorney, and you come to 
 him to know all about it. He tells you that it is in his 
 possession as sole executor of the will ; he is to have 
 the entire management of the property, and you are 
 to take all your direction from him as your guardian : 
 he'll take care of you during your minority, and put 
 you in possession of what you are entitled to when you 
 come of age. You go out and meet a neighbour, tell- 
 ing him where you were, and what the attorney had 
 said; and he looks at you and says, " There's not a 
 word of truth in it, for I saw the will, and your 
 father has made a clear provision for you during 
 your minority, and you are to be put in free and full 
 possession of the property when you come of age." 
 What would you do, children? What would you 
 do? Wouldn't you go and insist upon seeing the 
 will ? You would, children, you would. You 
 wouldn't be duped by any roguish attorney. Now, 
 your Heavenly Father has left a will, and the priest 
 there claims the sole right to be the administrator of 
 the will, and he tells you to do so and so, to be 
 governed by his direction, and on these conditions 
 he will take care of your souls, and see it all right 
 with you here and hereafter. But here's a man ' 
 (putting his hand on the head of one standing near) 
 * who has a copy of the will, and he knows there's 
 not a word of truth in all this.' And then he 
 appealed to them to act like themselves, and to assert 
 their right to read the Scriptures God's Testament 
 to man. 
 
 " During this address the people heard with great 
 attention, though a few moved away when one or 
 two priests came in sight, who, however, passed down, 
 the street without further notice."
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 
 
 A LETTER signed John Flanagan, Wesleyan minister, 
 and dated St Thomas's, Upper Canada, March 20th, 
 1834, tells Mr Ouseley that the writer, before leaving 
 Ireland, had never been near a Protestant place of 
 worship, or heard of a Methodist preacher but one, and 
 that was Gideon Ouseley. He describes the familiar 
 scene of a man on horseback, with two others at his 
 side, in the town of Cootehill, near the White Cross, 
 by the house of George Dunbar the watchmaker. 
 " I thought you the worst man in existence. I had 
 heard so much about you, of your burning so many 
 Catholics, that I really wished that God would kill 
 you." Mr Flanagan was then only fourteen years 
 of age, and remembered nothing more than the fact 
 of the man preaching ; but that he did remember, 
 as if it had happened yesterday. In Canada, the 
 Word had come home to his heart, applied by the 
 Spirit of God ; and no sooner was he convinced of 
 sin than "I thought of you." No sooner had he 
 found the Lord than he "wanted to see Father 
 Ouseley. I thought of you, I dreamt of you, I longed 
 To see you, I wanted to tell you what the Lord had 
 done for me." Feeling that this was not possible, 
 he writes, " But, thank God, I am happy : happy,
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 265 
 
 happy in the Lord. May God support you in your 
 declining years, and may He give me now in my 
 youth something of the spirit of Ouseley ! " 
 
 With the sanction, and by the aid of the Mission- 
 ary Committee, he succeeded in establishing a Scrip- 
 ture Readers' Society, employing ten men ; some of 
 the leading Irish preachers, however, never co-oper- 
 ated in the plan, which is said to have eventually 
 failed for want of agents. But the fact is, that 
 opposition often dries up the sympathies from which 
 agencies would spring ; and it is strange, how ready 
 some men are, in all Christian Churches, to take the 
 responsibility of checking the usefulness of others, 
 and how much alarmed they are at assuming the 
 responsibility of letting good be done in a way that 
 they are not accustomed to. He gave 50 a year 
 himself towards the cost of the readers, and we often 
 find sums going from him to this, that, and the other 
 object. The Rev. John Saul stated that he had 
 sometimes given him as much as 20 at a time. 
 
 It would seem that Dr Hoole had been a principal 
 helper at the Mission House, in carrying out his 
 design for the employment of Scripture readers. 
 Cordial letters passed between them at different 
 times, in one of which Dr Hoole pays a tribute to a 
 speech of Mr Reilly at Great Queen Street Chapel, 
 in 1835, congratulating his early associate, Gideon 
 Ouseley, who always loved the man that had so 
 often stood by his side, who, with his light hair and 
 flowing speech, kindling into high excitement, dis- 
 played in his happiest moments some of the striking 
 qualities of real Irish eloquence. 
 
 A long letter from a man in the Island of Achill,
 
 266 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 which lies off the coasts of Mayo, beyond the bogs 
 and beyond the mountains, shows how various 
 Christian agencies co-operate with one another, even 
 when the shortsightedness of the agents may make 
 them mutually distrustful. This man had first been 
 led to read the Scriptures through the Rev. Mr 
 Willing, a well-known clergyman in Cavan, con- 
 nected with the Irish Scripture Readers' Society. 
 He had become a Protestant through reading Mr 
 Ousel ey's " Old Christianity," and, though the 
 letter does not expressly say so, evidently had 
 become a Methodist. Having sent for a Protestant 
 clergyman to baptize his child, he lost all his earthly 
 friends. After several years, he had been employed 
 by the committee of the Achill Mission, originated 
 and up to that time conducted under the zealous 
 superintendence of the Rev. Edward Nangle, to 
 whom and to his colleague Mr Duncan, a very able 
 man, the writer bears an unaffected testimony. But 
 he is grieved with the doctrines of Reprobation which 
 he hears preached, and would gladly dwell and labour 
 where grace free for all sinners, and grace saving 
 from all sin, was fully proclaimed. He alludes also 
 to good Mr Stoney, the rector of the adjacent parish 
 of Newport, coupling him with the other two clergy- 
 men named ; and as to them all the only fault he 
 seems to have found is, that they are " up-the-hill " 
 Calvin ists, which probably means very high. 
 
 The Rev. Jeremiah Wilson writes, "In 1835 I 
 travelled with Mr Ouseley in his gig from Elphin to 
 Strokestown." Having related how Mr Ouseley twice 
 pulled up on the road once to speak to a butcher 
 who was buying a pig, and once to say a few words to
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 267 
 
 about a dozen men whom he met Mr "Wilson pro- 
 ceeds : " Having put up his horse in Strokestown, 
 he came out to the street, and seeing a few of the 
 constabulary, he said to them, l You're king's men. 
 Now, what a fine thing it would be if you were men 
 of the King of kings ! ' ' Yes,' said they, ' but we 
 can't be.' ' Pooh ! ' said he, l what is there to hinder 
 you ? There are just two points, faith and love. 
 Follow these, and there's no fear of you.' ' sir, 
 we can't,' was their reply. l The evil nature that is in 
 us hinders us/ ' Pooh ! I tell you you're all wrong. 
 You know, children, it's just the way I would be in 
 if I had the ague. If all the men in the world would 
 shout, "Ouseley, don't shake," Ouseley would shake 
 on ; but if I had the cure for it, and was cured of the 
 ague, then, if all the men in the world would shout, 
 " Ouseley, shake as you did when you had the ague," 
 Ouseley could not shake that way. Oh, no, children, 
 when I had got the cure for it, the shaking would go 
 away. That's the way you'll be when the evil nature 
 is taken out of you, and the good nature is given you ; 
 then you'll be able to follow faith and love. But 
 don't believe in any man, or any set of men. If you 
 do, you'll be ruined. You policemen are doing your 
 duty in the streets of Strokestown, and the people 
 say, " Oh, the police are all wrong." But you look at 
 the book of orders, and you see you have been doing 
 what's right, and you laugh at the poor ignorant 
 people. But suppose the officer bids you do what's 
 wrong ; you go to the book of orders, and you see 
 that what he bids you do is contrary to it, and you 
 know you are not safe in doing it. That's the way, 
 children. The God of heaven has given us a Book
 
 268 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEV. 
 
 of Orders ; and if what man bids us do doesn't 
 agree with that Book, we're not safe in doing it. But 
 they'll stamp their foot at you ! "Well, what about 
 that ? Sure, they're dying men, like ourselves, and 
 they'll soon be dead, and rotting in their graves, and, 
 it may be, you and I standing over them; and,' 
 giving a snap of his finger, he raised his voice, and 
 cried, ' What about them, then ? ' 
 
 " Passing across the street to his lodging for the 
 night, an old man, a pensioner, ran after him, saying, 
 1 Mr Ouseley, how is your brother ? I was under 
 him in the army, and a dear, good man he was. 
 When did you hear from him ? ' He replied, 1 1 heard 
 from him two weeks ago.' 'And how is he ? ' ' Oh/ 
 said Ouseley, 'he is very well, dear; but how is your 
 soul ? ' '0 sir,' said the man, ' I'm not of your 
 way of thinking.' ' Well, and what way of thinking 
 are you, dear ? Don't you wish to go to heaven ? ' 
 1 Oh, I do,' said the man. l Then,' said Mr Ouseley, 
 ' sure, I wish to go there too. Now, dear, you see we 
 are of one way of thinking.' And, still holding him 
 by the hand, he talked to him of the love of Christ, 
 until the tears streamed down the old soldier's face." 
 
 " Yesterday," says Ouseley, " once more I was four 
 times employed." By that, he means in preaching; 
 the places being Warren Point, Rostrevor, and 
 Newry. This was in 1835, when for a time he made 
 Armagh his centre, and thence made this excursion 
 to the neighbourhood of the Mourne Mountains. 
 This year he was again coupled with one of his own 
 sous in the gospel, George Burrows a Christian, if 
 ever one breathed in human body mild and happy 
 and holy ; anything but a singular or remarkable
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 269 
 
 man, except for the one thing that an excellent 
 spirit was in him ; and the more you knew him, the 
 more you felt how the grace of God could make a 
 man good ; a man who, after all, was just like 
 other men, only that he was so unlike all that was 
 evil. 
 
 Speaking of a visit to Galway, to assist in raising 
 funds for a chapel there, Mr Ouseley says that he 
 met with no annoyance, " only that one man came 
 up to me on the street, and gravely accosted me, 
 saying, ' Sir, one of your eyes is not good, and the 
 devil soon pull out the other ! ' ' Thank you,' said 
 I." At this, he was confounded, and became civil. 
 He states that when in that city twenty-four years 
 ago, his two favourite posts for street-preaching 
 were near the barracks, and before the window of 
 an apothecary a kind of window at which a mob 
 would be slow to throw stones. 
 
 We next find him at Trim, Athboy, and Arva, in 
 which last place "the kind church clergyman" 
 stood by while he preached in the market, and then 
 took him to his home. Hence he went to the 
 house of Mr James Armstrong, of Coraneary, where 
 he was seized with violent illness. Keluctant to 
 alarm Mrs Ouseley, he did not consent to her being 
 called for until matters had proceeded very far. 
 She found him "lying like a corpse," with his eyes 
 closed and sunk into the sockets. It was not long 
 before he rallied a little. " Our dear friends," 
 wrote Mrs Ouseley to Mr Bonsall, " are all affection 
 and attention. What a providential mercy that he 
 came to this house ! " 
 
 His brother writes to Mrs Ouseley: "I am most
 
 2;o LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 truly grieved to hear of my dearest Gideon's situa- 
 tion. But that can't mend the matter ; and should 
 it please God to take him, you shall not be left 
 either poor or destitute while I have the means ; for 
 you are, and ever were, my sister most beloved, 
 and in me you shall find a friend and a brother. 
 Let John Bonsall advance you what you want on 
 the present occasion, and draw on me at sight for 
 the amount." In a subsequent letter he resents 
 the thanks which this one had, doubtless, called out 
 from two hearts as grateful as those of Gideon and 
 Harriet. " Oh, with all your wisdom you still don't 
 know me, though Gideon thinks he knows all 
 things." 
 
 He then touches a point in which, as in many 
 other things, Methodist preachers and soldiers have 
 some relation to one another : " I hope, my dear 
 sister, that the Society to which you belong, and 
 for which Gideon has laboured incessantly, is not 
 like the Government of most countries, in their 
 feelings towards soldiers in particular, and those 
 who have risked most on their defence. They 
 not unfrequently forget services before the wounds 
 received in the performance of those services are 
 healed. How is poor Gideon provided for ? What 
 have they done for him, who dedicated his whole 
 life to a cause in which they pretend they are so 
 interested???" 
 
 When able to move towards Dublin, his first 
 letter is written from Ballyduff, apparently from 
 the house of a clergyman, Mr Eades. " I left the 
 dear Coraueary family yesterday, and John, the 
 doctor's son, came with me to this place. He will
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 271 
 
 accompany me to Dublin." The progress of his 
 recovery was but slow. Reaching home in November, 
 he was not able to preach until the end of the year. 
 Then he did so once, on New- Year's Day, at Lucan, 
 a few miles out of Dublin, but not again till Good Fri- 
 day, when he preached in Whitefriars Street Chapel, 
 in Dublin. Writing to his brother, he declares, with 
 his usual disregard of ailment, that he is perfectly 
 restored ; " and my Harriet is tolerably well, though 
 complaining of much bodily weakness. This is not 
 strange, for I am in my seventy-sixth year, and she 
 is not far behind." Then comes a burst of praise 
 ,and thanksgiving to His Father and Redeemer in 
 heaven. 
 
 During the interruption to his ordinary toil, occa- 
 sioned by this illness, he wrote letters, which were 
 inserted in the " Dublin Evening Packet," and also a 
 pamphlet. He has, moreover, brief as his notes are, 
 a serious loss to record, that of his horse, " that had 
 carried him the previous seven years many thousands 
 of miles." He had been kicked by some other horse, 
 and never recovered. After a trial trip of a week or 
 so, in the Queen's County, he ventured on a journey 
 to Enniskillen in May; but the loss of his horse drove 
 him to the coach, which he never seems to have taken 
 kindly to. It brought him to his destination on the 
 Saturday evening, and on the Sunday he preached, 
 went to church, preached in the afternoon in the 
 street, and again at night in the chapel. He had 
 already passed his seventy-fifth year, but, in the six- 
 ' teen days now spent in that part of the country, he 
 preached six-and-thirty times, of which eight were in 
 markets and streets ; and his own account is that he
 
 272 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 was " nothing the worse, nor even fatigued." Be- 
 sides Irvinestown, he visited Pettigo in Tyrone, and 
 Ballyshannon in Donegal. In the latter place, he 
 states that another Methodist preacher, belonging to 
 the Primitive Society, had been violently assailed 
 while attempting to preach in the street ; but he was 
 heard by an immense crowd " as quietly as if they 
 had all been our own people." 
 
 In returning through Enniskillen, he stayed with 
 " kind Brother Halliday and his family." He was 
 ill, took remedies, did not sleep, and in the morning 
 feared that he must disappoint the people, who, accord- 
 ing to announcement, expected him to preach three 
 times. " However, I rose from my bed, bowed my- 
 self in humble prayer to my Lord, and laid the matter 
 before Him. He heard me adored be His name ; I 
 was well at once, breakfasted, preached at eleven, went 
 to church, as has been my manner from the begin- 
 ning, and in doing so I found the Lord blessed me ; 
 spoke to many in the street, and in the evening 
 preached without either illness or weakness to a 
 crowded chapel." He again preached to them next 
 morning, and the same evening at Lisbellaw, " where 
 I saw a heavenly work thirty-seven years ago among 
 the brothers and sisters, and other relations, of our 
 late blessed Brother Copelaud." He probably here 
 refers to the Rev. W. Copeland, another of his spiri- 
 tual sons in the ministry, who ran but a brief, though 
 useful course, before he was taken home. Several 
 who bore the name of Copeland were frequently 
 mentioned amongst the most respected friends of 
 Methodism in Fermanagh. 
 
 A friend communicates the following, through the
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 273 
 
 Rev. Wm. Burnside, who " was well acquainted with 
 some of the persons mentioned : " 
 
 " Seventy years ago, on Mr Ouseley and Mr Graham's first 
 visit to the north of Ireland, manifest tokens of the Divine pre- 
 sence invariably accompanied their ministrations ; and, as in the 
 late revival [that of 1859], it was no unusual thing, while they 
 were holding their meetings, to see the people weep, fall down, 
 apparently without sense or motion, for a considerable time, then 
 suddenly rise up praising God for having pardoned all their sins, 
 and given them an assurance of His love. A striking instance 
 of this I heard related by an eyewitness, 
 
 " On the missionaries' visit to Clones about this time, they 
 
 stopped at the house of a Mrs R y, a widow lady, who carried 
 
 on a most extensive drapery business. In that establishment 
 
 there resided then a young man, son to a gentleman, a Mr L , 
 
 who lived near the village of Redhill. This young man's mother 
 (who was a most excellent woman, according to her light) heard 
 from her servants of the missionaries' preaching in the street of 
 Clones. They told her they were broken priests, and possessed 
 by the devil that they rode on horseback, and preached with 
 black caps on them. Her curiosity became aroused, and she 
 became anxious to see and hear them for herself. At this junc- 
 ture she had a letter from her son, saying that Mr Ouseley and 
 
 Mr Graham were to be in R fair on a certain day, and that 
 
 it was his earnest wish they should be invited to stop at his 
 father's. The mother accordingly requested her husband. He 
 reluctantly consented, but desired her to get his eldest son to wait 
 upon them with the invitation. The son declined, as Methodism 
 was little known and little thought of then in that neighbourhood. 
 However, Mrs L prevailed on her husband to carry the in- 
 vitation himself. Accordingly, after the missionaries had preached 
 
 to the vast number of people who attended the fair, Mr L 
 
 made his way through the crowd to where the preachers stood, 
 introduced himself to them, spoke of the communication from 
 his son in Clones, and said, 'I have come, according to his wish, 
 to ask you to dine with me to-day, and to make my house your 
 home while you are here.' They thanked him, and Mr Ouseley 
 
 said, ' Mr L , have you a place for us to preach in ? for we 
 
 make it a rule never to accept an invitation where liberty is not 
 
 S
 
 274 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 given us to preach.' Mr L was very much puzzled how to 
 
 act. He was unwilling to bring upon himself the illwill of his 
 Roman Catholic neighbours and others by such a proceeding 
 but he was also unwilling to give an impression to the mission- 
 aries that he was not sincere and hearty in his invitation, for he 
 was a most hospitable man. Very soon he said, ' Well, I have a 
 very large parlour, and I suppose you must have it.' Mr Ouseley 
 at once turned to the large crowd, mostly Roman Catholics, and 
 
 announced a great revival meeting that night at Mr L 's. 
 
 The vast crowd gazed at Mr L in astonishment, and he was 
 
 glad to get out of the village. At the time appointed, a multi- 
 tude of people who had attended the fair, and from the country 
 
 all round, came flocking up Mr L 's avenue, filling the 
 
 house and the entrance-hall. All were filled with wonder, as this 
 was the missionaries' first visit to that quarter. When the mis- 
 sionaries began to preach, the people began to weep and pray, 
 and numbers fell stricken to the ground, and amongst them 
 
 Mr L 's eldest son. This being a new thing in the country, 
 
 and young Mr L lying in a swoon, with no appearance of re- 
 covery, the mother became alarmed, and inquired of Mr Ouseley 
 the meaning of it. He told her plainly he had never seen any- 
 thing like it ; but he hoped the enemy had not got power to drive 
 them out of the neighbourhood (as would have been the case had 
 the young man not recovered). The eldest daughter, seeing her 
 brother in this state, said, ' It is full time for us all to begin to 
 think of ourselves when he has done so.' Up to that time she 
 had been influenced only by curiosity, and when, at prayer, those 
 around her were falling down and weeping, she had just turned 
 round to look on. Just then, however, an old Wesleyan class- 
 leader, whom she had not before known, touched her on the 
 shoulder, and desired her to look into her own heart an expres- * 
 sion she never afterwards forgot. Not long after this, young 
 
 Mr L recovered from his stricken state, and, rising up, 
 
 praised God and exhorted the people. The sister afterwards, 
 through Mr Ouseley's instrumentality, became truly pious, and 
 lived and died a devoted Christian. 
 
 " Mrs L , conversing with Mr Ouseley on religious subjects, 
 
 related the following dream : For some time previously, she had 
 felt more than usual anxiety respecting the state of her soul. 
 One night, while in this state, she dreamed that she stood at
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 275 
 
 her own hall door, that the night was lovely, the stars bright 
 and shining. The sight was so beautiful that she continued 
 looking upward. Just then the clouds parted, and she saw a 
 person of most benign countenance appear, moving towards the 
 earth. She immediately thought, ' This is my Saviour ! ' As 
 she continued gazing, the person came nearer and nearer. 
 ' Now,' thought she, ' this is my opportunity ! When my 
 Lord and Saviour visits my house, surely He will not reject my 
 prayer.' She bowed herself before Him, and said, ' My Saviour, 
 as You have come under my roof, surely You will bless me, and 
 bless my family.' She thought the Saviour smiled upon her 
 graciously, and that a sweet peace visited her heart, and she 
 then felt that she loved her Saviour above all things, and could 
 trust in Him. The sense of peace was with her when she awoke, 
 and that she never lost. Mr Ouseley said to her, ' You have it, 
 you have it. Never give up your confidence.' Shortly after this, 
 fever visited the family. She took it, and died. Mr Ouseley 
 attended her during her illness. Immediately before her death, 
 she requested to be raised up in her bed, and began to sing 
 
 ' The voice of free grace cries, Escape to the mountain,' &c., 
 
 and sang it to the end. She then lay calmly down, and, without 
 groan or sigh, her happy spirit passed away to a better world. 
 
 " Mr Ouseley never ceased to be the firm and attached friend 
 of this family. To the eldest daughter he was particularly 
 attached, as was also Mrs Ouseley, who was a frequent visitor 
 
 at the house. He used to say to Miss L , ' I shall get away 
 
 to a better world before you. But, remember, I will be looking 
 out for you, and, if I find you not coming, I will then say, " Poor 
 
 B y, you have missed your way." ' This, however, she never 
 
 did. The Rev. Henry Deery came from Dubin to Monaghan to 
 preach her funeral sermon. He said at the close, ' I have known 
 
 Mrs R for upwards of forty years, and have been coming 
 
 into and going out of her house during all that time, and can. 
 say with truth I never saw a change in her countenance always 
 the same ; a truly devoted Christian.' A gentleman, not con- 
 nected with Methodism, who went to hear the sermon, remark- 
 ing on it to one of her friends, said, ' That man has told the 
 truth. There never was her equal in Monaghan.' 
 
 " She was heard to relate the following in connection with the
 
 276 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 introduction of Methodism into her father's family. Her grand- 
 mother a very old woman at the time, and requiring to use a 
 staff for support got frightened at the stricken cases. She must 
 have thought that the missionaries had power to strike the 
 people down ; for she went artlessly to Mr Ouseley to request 
 that, if she had to fall, it might be in the house. Mr Ouseley's 
 reply was, ' grandmother ! I am afraid you are too stout to 
 fall.' 
 
 " Another very strange occurrence took place in that country 
 about that time, which caused a great sensation. As Mr Ouse- 
 ley was preaching at a cross-road, near a Roman Catholic chapel, 
 the greater portion of the congregation having to pass that way 
 homewards, they, hearing him speak in English, and then trans- 
 late into Irish, stopped to listen. A man called 'the Chevalier,' 
 on account of his self-consequence, who was in very comfortable 
 circumstances, and had been very useful to Mr L in busi- 
 ness matters, but had become enraged at the missionaries' hav- 
 ing obtained a footing in Mr L 's house, this man, seeing 
 
 the crowd gather round Mr Ouseley, strove to drive them away, 
 but failed. He called Mr Ouseley a false prophet, and other 
 opprobrious names. Mr Ouseley, as was his wont, paid no 
 attention to this, but preached on. The man became very much 
 excited, went home, took to his bed, and not long after died. 
 On the following Sabbath, as Mr Ouseley was preaching, at the 
 same hour, and on the same spot, a funeral was seen in the dis- 
 tance approaching. Mr Ouseley, who had not heard of this 
 man's illness or death, was deeply affected, and was seen to weep. 
 After this, great fear fell on the country around, and they were 
 careful not to interfere with the missionaries in that neighbour- 
 hood afterwards." 
 
 Had some men been as often mobbed and stoned 
 as Mr Ouseley, they would have made something of 
 it. He, however, says, " Is it not a great mercy that 
 I have escaped uninjured for so many years ? more 
 than forty since I began to preach in the streets! 
 Though I have been ill at intervals, I have not been 
 so much as one year laid aside ; thanks to my Father 
 and God, through Christ my Lord."
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 277 
 
 In the June of 1837 we find him at Carlow and 
 Fermoy, on his way to the Conference at Cork, where 
 Dr Bunting presided. In August of the same year, 
 writing from Abbeyleix, he says that he had preached 
 nineteen times in eight days ; and, after praising God 
 who enabled him to do so, seems to think that this 
 ought to be taken by his friends as a proof that they 
 might be quite at ease about his health. The idea 
 that it might cause them anxiety does not appear to 
 have crossed his mind. In the same vein, writing in 
 September from Spring Park, near Borrissokane, he 
 assures Mrs Ouseley that, after preaching four times, 
 he was " not a whit the worse." At Roscrea his 
 friends were terrified when he resolved " to take the 
 street," because of the disturbed state of the country. 
 " They came not near me, but I went and preached, 
 and returned quite safe." He finds Borrissokane 
 altered by the hand of death. " The dear old friends 
 are gone gone home before us. My heart melts 
 within me while I write and recollect the times that 
 are past. May God be with me now also ! " This 
 last is evidently a prayer that the labours he is about 
 to enter upon may be fruitful, as those had been 
 which now lay so many years behind. 
 
 About this time some of his letters to his brother 
 Ralph, then in Lisbon, begin to be preserved. He tells 
 him with delight of the exposure of Dens' Theology, 
 by M'Ghee and others, and says that it has brought 
 the priests to their wits' end. Ralph, in his letters 
 to him, betrays strong affection and admiration, 
 without ever expressing anything of the sort. He 
 begins one by thanking him " for your short letter 
 and long sermon." In another, he says that as to
 
 278 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 the sermon, Gideon might as well omit it. He 
 thinks if he tried, he could perhaps preach as good 
 a one himself. Then he is taken with solicitude for 
 Gideon's spiritual welfare, and fears that the success 
 of his books may lead to spiritual pride a sin quite 
 as bad as some of his own. He boldly proclaims the 
 breaking of the Achilles tendon to be a judgment on 
 Gideon for running up and down the country on one 
 wild-goose chase after another, instead of staying at 
 home like a sensible man. He tells him that he 
 " might as well whistle jigs to a milestone, as preach 
 to the Papists." Some of his letters he addresses 
 to him as " Captain" Ouseley, apparently to indicate 
 his idea of his militant qualities. Once, in writing 
 to Mrs Ouseley, he confesses to reading some of 
 Gideon's books, and wonders how he ever got all the 
 information. " He might have been the Pope's 
 private secretary all his life." In a letter from Lon- 
 don, referring to Mr (afterwards Sir Philip) Cramp- 
 ton, with whom he had become acquainted through 
 Gideon, he unwittingly says what would confirm the 
 latter in his opinion that the service and friendship 
 of the world were hollow : " This man's acquaint- 
 ance would be more valuable than all the others I 
 have, as a shining example which one might be glad 
 to imitate, and as an upright, enlightened character, 
 in whose acts and words one might place (what now- 
 adays is not to be placed in any) unlimited con- 
 fidence." One point in Mr Crampton pleased him 
 greatly : " While he stands firmly by the saint, he 
 does not hang up the sinner, as some of your sect 
 are accustomed to do." 
 
 If this expression is not directly connected with
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 279 
 
 that in the following extract of a note from Mr 
 Crampton to Sir Ralph, it is at least illustrated by 
 it : " I do not hesitate to say that in your becoming 
 a knight, you will confer more honour on the 
 order than the order can confer upon you. At the 
 same time, I cannot admit that a knighthood of any 
 order which terrestrial sovereigns can confer, will 
 raise you to the rank of your brother Saint Gideon, 
 as you justly term him." 
 
 Meantime such topics as the controversy about 
 Dens opened up, gave him new subjects for frequent 
 letters in different newspapers. Now a gig begins 
 to be heard of, and not exclusively the old pulpit 
 the saddle. Writing from Tandragee, he speaks of 
 preaching three times in the day, once in the fair 
 of Portnorris, as he passed through, " standing in 
 my gig." We find him preaching on a Tuesday 
 night at Banbridge, and again on Wednesday morn- 
 ing, both in the street and the chapel, after which he 
 drives to Tandragee, and there preaches first in the 
 market, and afterwards in the chapel. He " was 
 then pretty well tired, and slept well, thank God." 
 
 Then we trace him on tours from Belfast as a 
 centre, first in Down, through Donaghadee, New- 
 townards and Downpatrick ; and next in Antrim, 
 through Carrickfergus, Lame, and Lisburne. In one 
 of these he was the guest of good Lord Roden at 
 Tollymore Park, one of the most beautifully situated 
 mansions in these isles. A kindly letter from Lord 
 Roden is among his papers. 
 
 At the close of 1835 we find him riding or 
 driving twenty miles to Dromore, and holding a 
 watch-night service, which lasted from ten o'clock to
 
 280 LIFE OF GIDEON USE LEY. 
 
 one in the morning of New- Year's Day. He preached 
 altogether five times, and dined with Mr Boyd, the 
 rector. 
 
 One letter is dated from Benburb Castle, and he 
 tells Mrs Ouseley, " Were this couple my son and 
 daughter, they could not show me more love. They 
 are longing for you to come." Another of those 
 illnesses, which now, in spite of his aversion to 
 notice them, begin to reappear every now and then, 
 had, immediately before this visit, laid him up for 
 sixteen days. But he speaks with delight of his 
 congregation ; the large parochial schoolroom could 
 not hold them, and would have been too small even 
 had it been as large again. He and his host 
 aud hostess spent a day with Dr Griffin, the 
 rector. 
 
 In ]836 he made a visit to England on business 
 of his brother's. He preached in Liverpool soon after 
 landing, in the morning, and again in another chapel 
 at night. In London the kindness of Dr Hoole 
 enabled him soon and easily to get through his busi- 
 ness affairs. He preached in two London chapels, 
 and makes lamentation over the stagnation of 
 Methodist work in Wandsworth, where it had existed, 
 without extending, ever since the days of John 
 "Wesley. 
 
 Traces of letters pressing him to visit different 
 quarters remain. From Bramley the Rev. James 
 Blackett reminded him that on his visit to Chester, 
 twenty years before, the Lord graciously poured out 
 His Spirit, and saved many precious souls, who are 
 still walking in the way of righteousness. At Leeds 
 he found that different friends had planned to way-
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 281 
 
 lay him as he arrived, and carry him to their home, 
 claiming kindred as his children, or as having 
 some of his children in the family. In a letter 
 written thence he tells Mrs Ouseley how he had 
 preached four times in Birmingham, on Sunday, 
 " among friends indeed," one of the times being in 
 the street. There also he met with many who hailed 
 him as their father. He proceeds to tell her of 
 what, we suspect, with all his love for her, was 
 not a frequent experience with her, the purchase 
 of a silk dress : "In Chesterfield I lodged with my 
 old friend Mr Owen, and bought in his great shop 
 twelve yards of beautiful silk and lining for you, 
 chosen by the good sister and himself out of many 
 pieces." 
 
 At Leeds they had " a blessed baud-meeting on 
 Saturday night ; " and on Sunday morning, at six, 
 he preached in St Peter's Chapel to the largest 
 congregation he had ever addressed. " My God so 
 strengthened me that I felt no difficulty, nor was I 
 even tired." At Hull, also, many of his children gave 
 him a warm welcome, and the general cordiality of 
 preachers and people warmed his heart. 
 
 " I am quite glad that I have taken this course 
 through this fine country," he says, writing to Mrs 
 Ouseley from Liverpool ; " there is nothing like 
 poverty or misery, but prosperity and comfort every- 
 where. . . . The preachers are blessedly alive 
 kind-hearted and affectionate men." After visiting 
 Preston, we find him on the other side of the 
 Channel, about the middle of May (1836). The 
 next letter to his beloved correspondent is from 
 Enniskillen.
 
 282 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 During the preceding week he had preached four 
 times in Monaghan, two in Cootehill, two in Clones, 
 two in Brookborough, three in Maguire's Bridge, 
 and three in Newtownbutler. Paroxysms of illness 
 now frequently attacked him, but the old fisher 
 would not be driven from the boat, and when not 
 prostrate, would fling out the net once more. He 
 preached twice in Enniskillen on the day of his 
 arrival. " I was nothing the worse," he assures Mrs 
 Ouseley, " when all was over. The Lord removed the 
 violent pain the night before. I slept well last night, 
 and preached this morning again, and am to do so 
 this evening also ; which will be the twentieth time 
 since yesterday week, notwithstanding the affliction I 
 have passed through. And I am now stout and well. 
 To God be all the glory ! " 
 
 The following extract from a letter to Dr Hoole, 
 as missionary secretary, throws light both on his 
 spirit and his plans : 
 
 " I shall close by stating what has often struck 
 me would do vast good indeed to this country 
 namely, If a few, even two, of our brethren were 
 selected by our Conference, and sent through all 
 parts, either together or separately men of some 
 education, good talents, and possessing fearlessness 
 to preach in the streets, &c. ; that could speak in 
 Irish, and have by all means an accurate knowledge 
 of the religion of Rome some of the professed 
 tenets of which are exquisite, pure, and apostolic, 
 and essentially sound Protestantism ; but its prac- 
 tical doctrines, framed by men of great parts, and 
 by Councils, in order to uphold the glory of the 
 Papacy, and support of its numerous clergy, are the
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 283 
 
 very reverse, and are with all diligence passed on 
 the credulous for divine mysteries of faith, without 
 which none can be saved, and which to even doubt in 
 any one point is heresy, and leads to certain damna- 
 tion, for that to doubt in one is to doubt in all. 
 While these latter are diligently inculcated from 
 infancy to hoary hairs, the former, though con- 
 stantly extolled and professed, are with equal dili- 
 gence neutralised and set aside, as the unceasing 
 opposition to the Scriptures of truth clearly shows. 
 Thus are the poor, unsuspecting people taught 
 darkness for light, and are deceived and ruined, 
 and the followers of the gospel proscribed as 
 detestable heretics that should be extirpated. Thus 
 is our country filled with anarchy and untold mis- 
 chiefs. Of this state of things not a few of our 
 rulers seem not to be aware. Oh, tell it not in 
 Gath! 
 
 11 Now, the Christian missionary, knowing these 
 things, must see it his wisdom to bring forth these 
 pure tenets, as found in their catechisms, standard 
 writings, in the three ancient creeds, and in the 
 gospel, and to insist that no Protestants, however 
 learned, no angel from heaven, could possibly in 
 truth object to them, and of course that all doctrines 
 contrary to them must be false and damnable. To 
 all this will the people freely agree. Then should 
 he mildly adduce the contrary tenets, and, with- 
 out ridicule or sarcasm, contrast them with the 
 pure. The people will instantly perceive how these 
 matters are ; for many of them are candid and 
 intelligent, and, so far from being enraged with 
 the preachers, will return home satisfied that these
 
 284 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 pretended mysteries of faith are ruinous deceptions, 
 will insist on having the Book of God in their 
 houses that they may search every point to the 
 bottom, will cease from their prejudices against 
 Protestants, and hesitate no longer to send their 
 children to their schools. These would be fine and 
 salutary effects truly. This blessed plan have I 
 adopted, and for many years past have been en- 
 deavouring to follow, both in my preaching and 
 writings, and not wholly in vain. Thank God, I 
 have been given to see various pleasing fruits of it, 
 and I trust the seed sown shall yet spring up abun- 
 dantly under God, if duly watered especially. I 
 am, yours in Christ, GIDEON OUSELEY." 
 
 " To the Rev. ELIJAH HOOLE, 
 
 Secretary, Wesleyan Methodist Mission House, 
 
 77 Hatton Garden, London." 
 
 Athlone is the next point where we get another 
 glimpse of him. There he is once in the street, and 
 twice in the chapel, on the Sunday, casting the net; 
 and on the morning and evening of Monday casting 
 it again. Lord and Lady Castlemaine stood by him 
 on the street till he had concluded. Galway is the 
 next point. " I preached much, as I came along, from 
 house to house." Here he was helping to raise funds 
 for building a chapel ; and gratefully mentions the 
 hospitality of Mr O'Hara. 
 
 Jn October of the same year, writing to his friends, 
 lie declares he is safe and well, " except a wound on 
 my right leg from the kick of a horse in the dark, as 
 I was passing through Maryborough on foot, about 
 three weeks ago. Though it was painful, it did not
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 285 
 
 hinder ine in the work of the Lord. I preached in 
 and out of doors fifteen times a week. This caused 
 my wounded leg to swell by day ; at night it got 
 down again, and now I intend to rest a while until 
 it becomes healed, or nearly so." Then he tells how 
 one hundred had given in their names to meet in 
 class. " From Sunday morning, August the 27th, 
 to Thursday morning, September the 21st, I was en- 
 abled by my Lord to preach fifty-four times in and 
 out of doors not far off my seventy-seventh year ! " 
 In Mountmelick, where he appears to have preached 
 seven times during a short visit, he says, " I have 
 not had so blessed a season for a long time. Be- 
 tween thirty and forty persons came forward, and 
 with tears gave me their names to meet in class." In 
 November 1837 he tells how a pressing invitation of 
 the Tullamore preachers, Messrs Crook and Gather, 
 had brought him again to Mountmelick. He rejoiced 
 in the prosperity of the work, but lets it out that his 
 leg is rather worse since he left home. Still he means 
 to go on for another week, and hopes to do so " with- 
 out much injury." He tells Mr Bousall how Mrs 
 Ouseley had been near to death, but " the Lord heard 
 prayer and relieved her, and me, poor me ! thanks 
 to Him ! " 
 
 It is plainly a note of failing strength when, on 
 returning from his work in the Tullamore Circuit, 
 although he tells how Brother Crook had taken him 
 almost everywhere in his gig, he could only say that 
 he had got back in tolerable health. 
 
 It was during this series of services that, among 
 other precious lambs, he gathered my friend John 
 Hay into the fold.
 
 236 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 In the spring of 1838 we find him anticipating 
 with great interest an impending discussion between 
 Mr Tresham Gregg and Father Tom Maguire. " I 
 had a conversation with Mr Gregg this day and yes- 
 terday, on the approaching discussion. He is a very 
 pious, ardent, good creature, and full of hope of floor- 
 ing his adversary, and doing wonders. I pray it may 
 be so. I should not take the plan he means to 
 take." This is dated May 23, 1838. In another 
 letter he speaks of Father Tom as a trickster, but 
 hopes that he will meet with more than his 
 match. 
 
 A new preaching - place now begins to make its 
 appearance, namely, the canal boat, which at that 
 time formed a quaint but convenient conveyance on 
 more than one important line from Dublin to the 
 provinces. In going down to Galway, he mentions 
 that, for nearly seven hours, he had been preaching or 
 reasoning ; and in coming back by the same line, he 
 had done so for nearly six hours. During this visit 
 to the capital of his native county, he heard in the 
 church, from Mr Medlicote, of Loughrea, " one of the 
 best sermons I ever heard delivered by any minister." 
 He also mentions that at Athlone, a Presbyterian 
 minister, who attended a missionary meeting, did 
 speak like a true Christian. He writes with as much 
 zest as if he were twenty-five, about a controversy in 
 the local Galway papers in which he bore the princi- 
 pal part. It is now, I think, for the first time, that 
 he mentions dining at the house of Judge Crampton, 
 who, with his admirable wife, was held in high esteem 
 by Christians of every denomination, and was a con-
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 287 
 
 stant friend of Methodist preachers, and particularly 
 of Mr Ouseley. 
 
 We might take an expression in one of the letters 
 written in the close of 1838, as describing all the time 
 between then and the last-named date "I came 
 with a pleasant course to Kilrush, and had no little 
 preaching as I came along." As to his mode of 
 returning on the tour from Kilrush, it is plain that 
 the horse is now out of the question, and that he is 
 forced to choose between coach and boat ; and he 
 expresses a decided preference for the latter a sign 
 of increasing inability to bear fatigue. 
 
 In a letter addressed to Marshal de Campo, Major- 
 General Sir Ralph Ouseley, 64 Rua da Amparo, 
 Lisbon, and dated Abbey leix, February 21, 1839, we 
 have the following : 
 
 " I came to Dublin nearly two months ago, and 
 intended to write thence to you without delay. But 
 on the very evening I came, I was, for the first time 
 in my life, attacked by robbers between five and 
 six o'clock, in Whitefriar Street, to take my watch 
 and run off. I seized one of them, and cried out, 
 ' Robbers ! ' No policemen or others were near to help. 
 Another of them joined him, and I was, with one of 
 them, tumbled on my back in the street. He got up 
 quickly, and fled, leaving his hat behind. Another, 
 when I got up, made at the chain of my watch again, 
 which broke, leaving the watch. A third took up a 
 small bag I had in my hand, which contained some 
 linen, papers, &c., and made off, but to no serious 
 damage to me. In the scuffle I received a hurt in 
 my right side I suppose a kick from one of them ; 
 but am now quite recovered, thank God." . . .
 
 288 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 Immediately after this attack, we find him visiting 
 Mr Campbell,, at Selbridge, who says he laboured 
 away as if nothing had happened, while his own note 
 is, that he preached in the chapel and in the street. 
 He evidently thought of settling in Lucan, and told 
 Mrs Ouseley how they could find rooms in the same 
 house with amiable Mrs Campbell, while, on the other 
 hand, he told Mr Campbell that, if the Conference 
 should appoint them both for general mission-work 
 the next year, they would spend two months at a 
 time from home, and one at home. " But what would 
 our wives do ? " inquired the other. " Oh, they could 
 live together, and would do very well." Alluding 
 to the blow given him on the side by the robbers, 
 his words were, " The hurt in my side is no 
 more." 
 
 " Closing my seventy-seventh year," he says, 
 writing to his dear old colleague Reilly, about a 
 week before the last birthday he was to number 
 among mortals. He praises his blessed Master, 
 as was his wont 
 
 ' Through waves, and clouds, and storms, 
 He gently cleared my way.' 
 
 Praises be to Him that sitteth upon the throne, 
 and maketh all things new, Amen and Amen ! Oh, 
 eternity, blissful eternity 
 
 ' Sin, earth, and hell, I now defy, 
 I lean upon my Saviour's breast.' 
 
 God be thanked, Amen ! The end shall soon 
 come. Joyful news ! " This was not written under
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 289 
 
 any presentiment of closely-approaching death. On 
 the contrary, in the same letter he speaks with his 
 usual dogged opposition to infirmity, saying that he 
 feels no such diminution of strength as would " pre- 
 vent him from labouring as usual." Nevertheless, 
 he takes leave of his colleague with the words 
 
 " ' There, there, at His feet, we shall suddenly meet, 
 And be parted in spirit no more. ' " 
 
 His letters now show increasing anxiety to make 
 Mrs Ouseley feel that he is " finely." He often 
 alludes to good Mrs Moore, at whose boarding-house 
 in Dublin he was accustomed to stay, and to the 
 great kindness that she always showed him ; but he 
 manifests a sense of the coldness of the Dublin people 
 and preachers. 
 
 We soon find that he had to consult Sir Philip 
 Crampton, the eminent surgeon, a brother of the 
 judge, who treated Ouseley as a personal friend, as 
 may be inferred from the extract before quoted of a 
 note which he wrote to Sir Ralph in reference to the 
 knighthood of the latter. 
 
 Sir Philip let Mr Ouseley know that a surgical 
 operation would become necessary, but allayed all 
 apprehensions of danger. " I must put myself quietly 
 under his care, for about three weeks after I return 
 from the country." He then plans to meet Mrs 
 Ouseley far away in Tarbert, to return with her, and 
 stay at Mrs Moore's so long as he is in the surgeon's 
 hands, and then to settle at Lucan. He speaks with 
 interest of the meetings for the celebration of the 
 centenary of Methodism, then about to be held in 
 Dublin. Having got as far as Abbeyleix on his way 
 
 T
 
 290 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 to Tarbert, he writes to Mrs Ouseley, and repels some 
 suggestions on her part that he had not been as well 
 as he had led her to think. 
 
 From Rushin, he writes the following to the Rev. 
 J. Nash, then in Dublin, attending the centenary 
 meetings : 
 
 "Yesterday I began my seventy-eighth year in 
 this world, and a day of happiness to me, and, I 
 trust, to others too, it has been. To God be glory 
 and praise for ever ! I preached in Mountrath at 
 ten o'clock, and met the class ; after that I went to 
 church and heard a good sermon ; I then went out, 
 and preached in the open air to many, without in- 
 terruption from any but one man, who again and 
 again vociferated, ' I'll prove there is no hell so I 
 will.' Having ended my short sermon, I returned to 
 Rushin, and after dinner preached at five to a nice 
 congregation in the parlour; and after tea we started 
 again for Mountrath, and I preached there at seven 
 o'clock. The blessing of the Lord was with us through 
 all, praise to Him for ever ! Thus, having preached 
 four times, and met the class, and gone twice into 
 the town, &c., on the first day of my seventy-eighth 
 year, I was not even fatigued I Thank God, thank 
 God, my soul, Amen and amen I Why, I feel as 
 able to labour in my Lord's work as I did twenty 
 years ago, now that I am closing my fortieth year 
 in His ministry. You may read this paragraph to Dr 
 Bunting, and present him my love. 
 
 " I am to preach at our friend Conway's this 
 evening, and after some days my beloved and I are 
 to proceed to Dublin. I am to attend there for 
 some time on Surgeon- General Crampton, for a
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 291 
 
 complaint which he doubts not he can shortly re- 
 move. 
 
 " God bless you and yours, my dear brother, prays 
 yours affectionately in the Lord, 
 
 " GIDEON OUSELEY." 
 
 He returned to Dublin in the middle of April, 
 preaching at Maryborough on his way five times on 
 the Sunday and Monday. The two days following 
 he spent in Mountmelick, and there once more the 
 Lord rejoiced His aged servant by the sight he loved 
 above all things, that of souls pressing to the feet of 
 the Saviour and into His fold. Having called upon 
 those who were resolved to flee from the wrath to 
 come, to give in their names and join the Society, 
 several came forward. " On writing each name," 
 says Mr Hay, " he solemnly repeated it, and said, 
 ' I write your name before God, and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who shall judge the dead at His appearing, and 
 His kingdom.' Then followed in each case a brief, 
 but earnest supplication, that God might write the 
 name in the Lamb's book of life. A friend who was 
 present with me at the time writes, ' The good done 
 on that night, only the Great Day will tell. I know 
 some who gave in their names on that night who are 
 holding on their way, and some are fallen asleep in 
 Jesus.' " 
 
 He writes to Mrs Ouseley, " On Tuesday night a 
 dense crowd attended in Mountmelick, and on Wed- 
 nesday night (April 10, 1839) the like, and in the 
 morning a few. ... I suppose about twenty have given 
 in their names to begin in the heavenly service. Our 
 meeting lasted from seven to after ten o'clock. . . .
 
 292 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 May the Lord continue to bless this fresh revival also ! 
 Glad, indeed, were that kind people to see me among 
 them once more." And he never had to tell of 
 preaching again. The " few " that heard him at 
 Mountmelick on Thursday morning, heard his last 
 sermon. Those, " about twenty," whose names he 
 wrote that Wednesday night, were the last he gathered 
 into the Methodist Societies. The friends who said 
 " Farewell " at the canal boat on the Thursday, were 
 the last who received the prophet in the name of a 
 prophet the last of along succession, many of whom 
 felt that in leaving them he had left behind him a 
 prophet's reward. 
 
 Once more on the canal boat he glided along the 
 level country towards the capital, doubtless bearing 
 much testimony for his blessed Master as he went. 
 He had left Mrs Ouseley at Abbeyleix, from which 
 place she could easily come to Dublin ; but the 
 Surgeon- General thought that there was no occasion 
 for her presence ; and at another consultation, six 
 days later, he still " things that all will be 
 well." 
 
 It would seem that the last table at which Onseley 
 ever sat as a guest was that of Judge Crampton, 
 where he dined twice in the week before he was 
 finally confined to bed. He speaks of having been 
 pleased and edified with the Judge, Mrs Crampton, 
 and their friends ; and does not fail to tell that they 
 affectionately inquired for Mrs Ouseley. On the 
 19th of April, he informs her that the Missionary 
 Deputation from England will be in Dublin the next 
 day, and, thinking it probable that he will not be able 
 to be with them at the meeting, he imagines they will
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 293 
 
 consider it strange. " But my health requires me 
 to keep still for some time." So far as we know, 
 what follows is the last sentence he ever put upon 
 paper : concluding this letter to the wife who had 
 shared his lot for six-and-fifty years, he says : " My 
 work was the Lord's, who never left nor forsook me, 
 but blessedly sustained me in my labours and 
 dangers. Glory, glory, glory be to Him, Amen." 
 The day after this was written, alarming symptoms 
 set in, and it soon became evident that the labourer's 
 toil was closing. Mrs Ouseley was presently at his 
 side. She had watched by his sick-bed at Dun- 
 more, young as she was, looking back upon a cloudy 
 past, and forward on a future dark and uncertain for 
 both worlds, with Young's terrible pictures for all of 
 religious consolation. She now again took her place 
 by his bedside ; but oh, with what a difference ! 
 Nearly fifty years of shining day separated their 
 memories from the dark times of chaos. The future 
 opened to the eye of both, filled with light and gold. 
 Even yet, Ouseley did not think that he was going 
 to part from Harriet; but Harriet saw the angels 
 waiting for her Ouseley, and with them a numerous 
 company of his own spiritual children. 
 
 To the Eev. John Fraser Matthews he said, " that, 
 if he had any wish to recover, it was to do something 
 more to hasten the downfall of the dire apostasy 
 that overspread the land." When Mr William 
 Banks, a friend and the son of a friend, was praying 
 by his side, he found the old man's hand laid upon 
 his shoulder, and heard him say, " Stop, dear ; pray 
 that I may recover and live to see the end of that 
 foul apostasy."
 
 294 LIFE OF GIDEON USE LEY. 
 
 His sufferings became intense, and he would cry, 
 " My Father, my Father, support Thy suffering child. 
 Thy will be done, my Father God." He frequently 
 repeated the hymn : 
 
 "And let this feeble body fail," 
 but most of all the last stanza 
 
 " Oh, what are all my sufferings here, 
 
 If, Lord, Thou count me meet, 
 With that enraptured host to appear, 
 
 And worship at Thy feet ! 
 Give joy or grief, give ease or pain, 
 
 Take life or friends away : 
 I come, to find them all again 
 
 In that eternal day." 
 
 On the day before his death, namely, the 13th of 
 May, he took leave of his relations, and prayed 
 especially for them, for all his friends, for the 
 Church of God at large, and for the whole world. 
 He dictated messages to some religious friends 
 through Mr Bonsall, and especially his grateful 
 remembrance to a lady from whom he had received 
 much kindness, coupled with the testimony, God is 
 Love, a testimony that, in life and strength, he had 
 made to resound in the ears of many a thousand. 
 He asked for the prayers of all, that he might be 
 endued with a thankful spirit, and in the midst of 
 his crushing tortures might be " saved from stupidity 
 and neglect." Late that day the Rev. Dr Appelbe 
 saw him. " He called to me, and said, * Come near, 
 my son.' I placed my ear near his lips, and he said, 
 ' Hear what the great Master said, Learn of me, not
 
 HIS OLD AGE. 295 
 
 of councils of popes and cardinals, but of ME.' Then 
 bis mind began to wander." 
 
 As Mr Bonsall sat beside him that evening, 
 he began uttering sentences in Irish, and, when 
 requested to do so, translated them into English. 
 They were the repetition of the reasonings that had 
 passed through his mind when under conviction of 
 sin, the beginning of his spiritual and the close 
 of his mortal life thus coming into remarkable 
 connection. " Is there an eternity a hereafter 
 beyond the grave? My mind replied, There is. 
 The next question was, What will you do? when 
 instantly, and altogether, my sins sprang up to my 
 mind's view like a hostile army. I then reasoned 
 with myself, If all these come against me in the day 
 of judgment, I shall be ruined most certainly." 
 
 Being asked by his nephew, " What do you now 
 think of the gospel, which you have preached all 
 your life ? " He replied, " Oh, it is light, and life, 
 and peace." 
 
 Instead of the words of Young, which had rolled 
 in upon his ear in his illness at Dunmore, he now 
 had the blessed words of the Bible constantly read 
 to him ; and every now and then they called out 
 from himself expressions of confidence and joy. 
 About three hours before his death, he told them 
 to read the 14th chapter of St John's Gospel. He 
 spoke upon discipleship, upon being one with Christ, 
 and upon the teaching of that chapter as to the 
 Holy Spirit, dwelling on which he said, " I have 
 no fear of death. The Spirit of God sustains me. 
 God's Spirit is my support." Apparently this was 
 the last word that he ever uttered ; and a little
 
 296 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 after the noonday, he entered into the everlasting 
 light. A few days afterwards, the old Methodist 
 chapel, in Whitefriars' Street, beheld an unusual 
 solemnity, and presently, men with full breasts 
 stood round an open grave in Mount Jerome, and 
 there returned to mother earth all that was now 
 earthly of one of the best sons of Erin that the 
 green sod ever covered.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MRS OUSELEY AND SIR RALPH. 
 
 MRS OUSELEY had travelled hand in hand with Gideon 
 for six-and-fifty years. Now, she remained behind 
 alone. He had often left her to go on his Master's 
 errands, after the lost sheep. We have no hint from 
 any one that she was ever known to repine either at 
 his long absences, or his snatch visits. The latter 
 must have been sometimes very trying. One story 
 is told of his coming home after weeks of absence, 
 and, no sooner had he attended to the horse, than 
 he came into the house and said, " Harriet, fasten on 
 this button for me, till I go off to such a place, 
 where I am expected to preach." Now he had left 
 her to go home, and abide in his Father's house. It 
 was not far away, the way was not unknown, and it 
 would not be long. 
 
 Still, it proved to be fourteen years. She made 
 her home with Mr Bonsall, who writes, " And what 
 shall be said of her during those fourteen years? 
 To describe her spirit, conversation, and manner of 
 life, for one day, is to describe it for the entire period. 
 It was throughout uniformly Christ-like." He says
 
 298 LIFE OF GIDEON O USE LEY. 
 
 again, " Not how to be great, but how to be holy 
 and happy, was the example presented by Mrs 
 Ouseley." 
 
 A great deal with her Bible, and often in prayer, 
 saying little and loving much, she made all in the 
 house feel how beautiful is the life of God in the soul 
 of man. Mr Hay, in whose class she met for some 
 couple of years, says, " She was so sweet, and calm, and 
 saintly; but she had little to say." The first care 
 of her widowhood would appear to have been that of 
 assuring Sir Ralph that she was exceedingly well off; 
 and yet we cannot make out that she had anything 
 to speak of, beyond her pittance of annuity as a 
 Methodist minister's widow. Thus happy herself, 
 and, like the happy, willing to serve others, but un- 
 willing to be a charge to any, she glided in health, 
 peace, and fulness of hope, through the ten long 
 evening years lying between eighty and ninety. 
 "On the 12th of February 1853," says Mr Bonsall, 
 " when settled in her bed, and after prayer, she ex- 
 pressed her thankfulness to God that she felt so well, 
 and, in her usual loving manner, poured forth bless- 
 ing upon my good wife and myself, for our affec- 
 tionate attention to her, and her gratitude to God 
 for His favour during a long life." 
 
 Long before the day broke, Mr and Mrs Bonsall 
 were called to her bedside. They were able to make 
 out a few words of prayer. They thought of what 
 they had hoard her sweetly say, that " soon she would 
 arrive at that blissful state, where, in the presence 
 and enjoyment of God, she should be restored to a 
 deathless union with many who had gone before 
 into the heavenly mansion." And then, after a few
 
 MRS O USE LEY AND SIR RALPH. 299 
 
 minutes, serenely, as her spirit had shed the light of 
 Christ around, did it pass into His hands. 
 
 Though Sir Ralph was ten years junior to Gideon, 
 he survived him less than three. As Mr Bonsall 
 stood by the bedside of the one uncle in Dublin, so 
 was he found by that of the other in Lisbon. The 
 soldier had often faced danger, but this was death. 
 Mr Nelson repeats what I have heard from other 
 quarters, that, in battle, he would say, " I shall not 
 be killed ; Gideon is praying for me ;" and many a 
 prayer of which he knew not waited for its answer 
 by that death-bed. Before Mr Bonsall arrived, the 
 Jesuits had already made their way into the sick 
 man's room. " Friar Joyce," says the nephew, speak- 
 ing of the first day that he was with his uncle, ap- 
 pealed to him to facilitate the reconciling of the old 
 man with the Church. Baptizing him now could do 
 no harm, and it would remove doubt. When he 
 found this sternly rejected, he began to speak of 
 the blessing procured by his Church through unifor- 
 mity ; but he received an answer which silenced that 
 gun. The old general, who had shed his blood for 
 Portugal, and who was the only Protestant, except 
 Sir James Yeo, who had been made a Knight Com- 
 mander of the highest military order of the kingdom 
 (Avis), and who was a proportionately desirable prize, 
 then so expressed his " detestation of Popery" as to 
 compel a retreat. The next day, when Mr Bonsall 
 re-entered the room after a walk round the city, he 
 found another with his uncle, whom he calls the 
 Jesuit Davies. 
 
 Sir Ralph hailed " John," saying that it was well 
 he had come just then ; and addressing the priest,
 
 300 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 said, " My nephew so completely floored father Joyce, 
 that unless you can manage him, you may despair of 
 managing me." Mr Bonsall simply told the friar, 
 that he declined to convert the sick-chamber of his 
 relative into a theatre for disputation. 
 
 When alone, the nephew and uncle had much con- 
 versation together, and the former tried to fix his 
 mind upon his own case as a sinner, and to direct 
 his thoughts to repentance and faith in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and to the effects of faith. And so day 
 passed after day. The old soldier would say, " Oh, 
 if I was with Harriet and Mary (Mrs Bonsall), seated 
 by the fire, I would cast myself into their lap, and 
 feel comfortable and happy." After a time, he began to 
 offer up "ten thousand thanks to God," for the mercies 
 He had shown to him. Coupled with this would still 
 arise the wish to be in Dublin with " Old Harriet and 
 Mary." In his walks, Mr Bonsall surveyed the estab- 
 lishment of the Inquisition, and his reflections were 
 directly personal. He thought, if it was now in force, 
 what would become of me ? Mr Prior, the Protestant 
 clergyman residing in Lisbon, was now sent for by 
 Mr Bonsall, with his uncle's concurrence. The old 
 man solemnly acknowledged his sins against God, and 
 paid that he could now trust Him with soul and body. 
 " I should not," he said, " have had this interview 
 with you, had not my mind been made up to forsake 
 sin, and to cast myself upon God for mercy. Yet, 
 what confidence can I have in myself; for, if God 
 were to restore me to any degree of health, I fear 
 I should violate my present purpose to serve Him." 
 
 When he came to speak of his body, knowing that 
 Mr Bonsall intended to remove it to Dublin, he said,
 
 MRS OUSELEY AND SIR RALPH. 301 
 
 " No matter where my body lies, it shall be gathered 
 at the resurrection." When Mr Prior spoke of the 
 Lord's Supper, he said, " Yes, I wish it; but it will, 
 I fear, be a burden to my mind, lest I again turn 
 to sin." 
 
 A few days later, when all was nearly over, Mr 
 Prior told Mr Bonsall that, had he not arrived, the 
 priests " would have managed for a triumph, and had 
 intended to make a great display." That day, the Jesuit 
 Davies called, and though Mr Bonsall sent him a 
 message, saying that he could not see his uncle, he 
 kept the servants so long in talk, that Mr Bonsall went 
 out and reproved him " for not taking his answer, and 
 for keeping the attendants of a dying man away from 
 him." Though plainly told that Sir Ralph did not 
 desire to see him, but the contrary, he persisted, 
 " Does he say so ? " u He has said so, nay more, he 
 does not admire you, and says you are a very self- 
 sufficient man." He then wanted to enter upon a 
 controversy. When this was declined, he still pressed 
 to see Sir Ralph, till he forced Mr Bonsall to say, 
 " I tell you he desires it not ; and, if your Holy In- 
 quisition were in force, I should not be deterred by 
 it from resisting such unmannerly intrusion." The 
 Jesuit then actually said he had been informed, by two 
 or three, that Sir Ralph had expressed a wish to see 
 him. " You could not have been so informed by any 
 person," replied Mr Bonsall, " and to so mon- 
 strous a statement, I can only reply by saying that 
 it is a lie." The cool answer to this was, " Charity 
 prompted me to come." " Nay," replied the indig- 
 nant nephew, " not charity, but to make a pretext 
 for a party triumph ; for you know that he detests
 
 302 LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY. 
 
 your doctrines. But, no matter for that, if you could 
 only make a colourable pretext for reporting that a 
 Protestant had become, not a convert to truth, but a 
 proselyte to your system. But, sir, you must excuse 
 me, I cannot, will not, suffer a further trespass 
 upon my time. Good evening !" 
 
 Thus, the influence of Gideon presided in the dying 
 chamber of Ralph, within telling him to Behold the 
 Saviour of mankind, and without guarding him from 
 the irruption of the Jesuits. We must firmly hope that 
 the spirits of the two brothers met at the feet of Him 
 before whom they who repent early, and they who 
 repent late, equally know that they have nought 
 wherein to glory, although they will also know that 
 only the former had the best of both worlds. 
 
 Mr Bonsall brought away the remains of his uncle, 
 thankful that the teeth of the Inquisition were 
 drawn. He laid him in the same grave with Gideon, 
 and erected one monument over the two brothers. 
 Over Ralph, he wrote 
 
 " The strong man of war and turmoil 
 Lay down like a meek and humble child, 
 
 Forgetful of 
 
 The glories and vanities of the world, 
 Seeking salvation eternal 
 Through Christ crucified."
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 WE have made no attempt to give any general esti- 
 mate of the character or labours of Mr Ouseley. It 
 never entered into our plan to do so. Rightly or 
 wrongly, our conception of our proper task was fixed 
 by the first survey of his papers ; and, instead of 
 being shaken, was only confirmed by every subsequent 
 one. We thought the best thing we could do was to 
 aim at letting Gideon Ouseley on paper appear as 
 like as it was possible to Gideon Ouseley in the 
 saddle, in the pulpit, and in the home, and having 
 done this, to leave every reader to take his own im- 
 pression, just as every witness of the man in action 
 had to take his. 
 
 However incompletely what we proposed to do has 
 been done, we do not doubt that the appearance of 
 this record of true evangelistic work, at a moment 
 when the Lord is quickening the spirit of evangelism 
 afresh in many branches of the Church, will, in some 
 small degree, contribute to encourage and stimulate 
 labourers. John Wesley used thankfully to record 
 that the revival of religion, which the Lord had 
 begun in his earlier days, had lasted more than forty 
 years, which Luther had said was the longest term 
 that any revival had been sustained. But it has 
 lasted till this day. It is now spreading wider and
 
 304 LIFE OF GIDEON USE LEY. 
 
 striking deeper than ever. Men of more nations and 
 tongues now feel and diffuse its influence than in any 
 previous stage. It never was confined to one channel, 
 whether of sect or nation. It at present runs in many 
 channels, broad and deep. Now within the banks, 
 and now overflowing from some one till it reaches 
 the others, and all seem united into one flood. In 
 this work the members of one denomination are made 
 the instruments of blessing to those of another, and 
 the citizens of one nation to those with whose fathers 
 their fathers were at war. Thus life is being made 
 the power to spread peace both among churches and 
 nations. 
 
 The connection of holiness with evangelistic power 
 is illustrated at every step in the course of Ouseley 
 and his fellow-helpers, especially that of Charles 
 Graham, the well-beloved. They were mighty with 
 men, because of their power with God. That unction 
 from the Holy One which taught Ouseley how to win 
 souls is the one all-sufficing cause, and the only 
 cause, of his extraordinary usefulness which can be 
 assigned. Through it every natural qualification, and 
 every acquired one, was endued with spiritual, in ad- 
 dition to human, power. The elements of human 
 power were many and evident; but not these, but 
 the Holy Spirit using them, led lost men to their 
 Saviour. The one cry that seems to rise from 
 every period of the labouring life of Ouseley is, 
 Evangelise 1 evangelise ! evangelise I and that ye 
 may do so with success, " Tarry ye in the city of Jeru- 
 salem until ye be endued with power from on high." 
 
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