At* Cbe Hlbrarg of flSetbo&tet 38(ograpbg EDITED BY REV. JOHN TELFORD, B.A. SAMUEL COLEY ^AMUEL COLEY THE ILLUSTRATIVE PREACHER BY ROBERT P. DOWNES, LL.D. CHARLES H. KELLY 2 CASTLE ST., Cmr RD., AND 26 PATERNOSTER Row, E.C. DeDtcatefc TO THE METHODIST PEOPLE WHOM HE LOVED, AND WHOM I ALSO LOVE, HAVING SHARED THEIR GRACIOUS HOSPITALITY FOR MORE THAN FORTY YEARS. CONTENTS CHAP. PAE I. INTRODUCTORY ... 9 II. EARLY YEARS . . . . 17 Parental Influence. Love of Know- ledge. Early Service for Christ. College Life. III. CIRCUIT LIFE . . . -39 Thoughtful Eloquence. The Illustra- tive Preacher. Pleas for Holiness. IV. THE PASTORATE . . -71 Class Leading. Conversational Gifts. Care for the Young. V. THEOLOGICAL TUTORSHIP . . 9! The Witness Within. A Dissolver of Doubts. Theism and Modern Thought. VI. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS . 105 Saintliness. Geniality. Intellectual Power. Strength of Will. Wisdom. Christlike Charity. VII. TWILIGHT AND MORNING . .121 Closing Words. NOTE. I am indebted for much of the material used in this sketch to the Rev. S. Birt Coley R, P. D, Servant of God, ' Well done ! ' Thou dwellest now beyond the golden sun ; Nor do we doubt some high, serene employ Still claims thee in that fadeless world of joy. Not thine the mis-spent years, Whose only harvest is a brood of fears : But years with holy thought and teaching rife, Whose fitting guerdon is eternal life. Not thine the bitter hate Of men who found thee heedless of their fate, Or curse of lips denied the living bread, But thanks of multitudes redeemed and fed. Not thine the infamy Of those who are forgotten ere they die, But cherished memories from friends who love, And long to meet thee in the life above. Not thine a diadem Without the glory of one precious gem, But one where many glitter pure and bright In the rich blaze of God's unsetting light. R. P. D. SAMUEL COLEY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY FROM the days of Wesley until now the Methodist ministry has been remark- able for its variety. Offering to eager and consecrated youth a sphere of service unsurpassed in Christendom, it has drawn into its ranks men of wonderfully diversi- fied capacity and genius. A glance at a few of the prominent members of its brotherhood during the period of Samuel Coley's active ministry will amply demon- strate this. Dr. Osborn, the ecclesiastical dictator, the Nestor of debate, the sworn champion of orthodoxy, strong in the defence of his gospel as St. Paul, and, like St. Paul, eloquent also through the 9 10 Samuel Coley tenderness of tears. William Arthur, a truly fascinating personality, uniting the dove-like gentleness of the Divine Spirit with the glow and potency of 'the tongue of fire.' George T. Perks, refined and sensitive as womanhood at its highest, every inch a gentleman, a pattern of con- scientious service, a man who would have graced a bishopric. Dr. W. Morley Punshon, the finished orator, wedding lofty thought with rhythmic music, and sending it home from the great soul behind it, as the sea hurls its waves upon the beach when winds are high. Thomas Vasey, a lovely spirit among men, uniting with the brain of a dialec- tician the passion of an evangelist and the heart of a child. Dr. W. B. Pope, one of the foremost theologians of his time, yet so child-like in spirit, and so rooted in the region of thought, as to be unconscious of his own greatness. W. O. Simpson, an orator born, not made ; rapid in utterance, resistless in appeal, and mighty in a speech which was no Introductory 1 1 feeble twittering, but, as the 'eagle's bark at blood.' Dr. James H. Rigg, strenuous in battle, generous in victory, a man of broadest culture and widest sympathy, stern in outward seeming, but, when intimately known, as sweet as summer. And last, but not least, among these servants of the King, Samuel Coley, winsome and saintly, wise in all the wisdom of the schools, a profound ex- positor of Holy Writ, and a great teacher, unmatched in illustrative power, bringing down sublimest truth to the compre- hension of the wayfaring man and the little child. It is with this gifted and saintly man that we deal in the following pages, a man concerning whom we are convinced that only those who knew him intimately have any adequate conception of his true greatness. We desire to bring before the mind of the Church which he so nobly served some aspects of his character and work which are of special and enduring interest. 12 Samuel Coley It is one of the finest offices of noble- ness to enkindle nobleness. Our greatest teachers are great examples, and we cannot allow a beautiful life to slip unregarded into oblivion without inflicting an injury on society which is not easily measured. As to our fitness for the task we have undertaken, we may remark that having lived for eighteen months the sunniest and most helpful of our life in the house of this great teacher, we have something to say about him which lies deeper and is of more tender import than a comparative stranger would be able to supply. We have felt the warm beat of this man's heart ; we have shared in the sanctity of his home life ; and we can therefore write of him with the affection of a son, while at the same time we may claim exemption from the suspicion of that indiscriminating blindness to which a son is so nobly prone. Let it be understood at the outset that the life of which we treat is not one of travel or adventure, or of accidents by flood or field. It is the life of a devout Introductory 1 3 thinker, a great teacher, a dedicated soul. As such we shall deal with it, striving as far as possible to keep our own personality in the background and to let the subject of our sketch speak for himself. CtfAPTEft II EARLY YEARS ILLUSTRATIONS Some people will give any amount of crutches to an eagle in full career. What cares he for their help? The Romans built the temple of virtue and honour so that none could enter the temple of honour without first going through that of virtue. Think not only of the good things given, but also of the goodness of the giver. Every ray of light will lead you at last to the sun. The little angel of the alley said, ' Yes, it is a little place, but see how high it is.' So the Christian may possess but a small spot of earth, but how much of heaven of which sordid worldlings never think ! Epaminondas, finding one of his captains sleeping in the day on the edge of the battle-field, slew him. One reflected on him, and he replied, ' I left him as I found him.' Unbelief is a little thing. So are the eye-lids but they are big enough to shut the whole world of colour and beauty out of the soul. It was said of a Persian prince in proof of his ' greatness that he did such great things for his friends and accepted such little things from them. This is i grandly true of God. A poor Persian nobleman married the daughter of Cyrus, the great king. One asked the nobleman, 'What about the dowry?' 'That,' he answered, ' is in the king's heart ! ' Christian, thy dowry is in God's heart! SAMUEL COLBY. CHAPTER II EARLY YEARS SAMUEL COLBY was born in Birming- ham on February 17, 1825. He was the son of Richard and Ann Coley, both of whom were earnest Christians and members of the Methodist church. Richard Coley was a sword-blade forger, who, by God's blessing on his industry, built up and maintained a comfortable home. The future minister of Christ thus sprang from the ranks of the toilers, and of this fact he was ever mindful. On one occasion he remarked to the writer, ' The poet says of the flower that it " seeks the sun, yet grasps the soil." Methodism touches some sunny social heights, but its roots are among the people, and if it should ever forget or neglect them, its glory will perish as an uprooted flower.' 17 2 18 Samuel Coley The child given of the Lord to the Birmingham toiler and his prayerful wife was extremely small and delicate, so much so, indeed, that the neighbours thought he was not likely to live. But no fear in this regard seems to have existed in the mind of his parents, and as though they had some prevision of his future career, they named him Samuel. In the home there hung a printed impression of the picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds of the young Samuel at prayer, and the future minister of Christ would tell how he was often pointed to it as a model to imitate. Parental Influence But his godly nurture did not end here, for it was the custom of his mother to take her two children a brother and sister into her bedroom, and while they knelt on either side of her, to commit them to God and to plead for their early consecration to His service. The answer to her prayers was not long delayed, for when but a little more than six Early Years 19 years of age the child Samuel was led to rejoice in the favour of God. To this fact he bore witness in later days. In a remarkable sermon on the godly training of children, he says : ' Children have been saved. On this matter I neither dispute nor theorize ; but if any deny, I quietly answer, " You are certainly wrong, for I myself knew the happiness of peace with God soon after six years of age." When only twelve years old he became a member of the church and a regular attendant at the Methodist class-meeting. Thus in actual childhood was that love of God kindled in his soul Whose visionary splendour steeped his life In hues of heaven. Whatever may be said of Wordsworth's platonic dream concerning 'The Recol- lections of Immortality in Childhood,' it is true of the subject of this sketch that 'heaven lay about him in his infancy,' and that he issued forth from his lowly home ' trailing clouds of glory ' whose radiance never vanished from his feet. 20 Samuel Coley This is a lesson which all Christian parents should carefully ponder. It is only too often assumed that children must first plunge into sin and then be dragged back into the Church by conquest ; that they must make an excursion to the devil before they come to Christ. Not such, however, is the conception of the Apostle where he instructs us to ' bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' Why should we for one moment suppose that there is no grace of the quickening and transforming Spirit suit- able to a little child ? Why should not the innocence of childhood glide into the life of God as sweetly and imper- ceptibly as spring glides into summer or twilight into morning ? Truly does Mr. Coley say in his Life of Thomas Collins, . ' Methodism has done much and well by conquest ; but only little and inadequately by nurture. May her power and per- fection in this matter daily increase I Thousands ought to be, might be, must be, thus gathered into our fold.' Early Years 21 From the day on which he joined the Methodist church to the day of his death, Samuel Coley maintained' the blessedness of peace with God and purity of heart and life. The altar of his soul was never desecrated by strange, unhallowed fires. His vision of divine things was never blurred by vicious living. His conscience was never darkened by bitter memories of past transgression. He was one of that happy number who did not know what it was to be a hindrance to the soul of another ; who never took advantage of another's frailty, or poverty, or ignorance ; who never stained the thought or life of another ; who did not extend the empire of evil by a single hair's-breadth, but only the empire of purity and good. In certain reminiscences of his child- hood, recorded in after years, we read : 'The first book I remember to have read was the Pilgrim's Progress, which I accepted literally, and received without any misgiving. I even thought I knew 22 Samuel Coley the way to start. It lay, I believed, through King's Norton Wood. The second book I remember was Robinson Crusoe, which gave me quite a penchant for cave-digging, and led me to furnish up a deserted pig-stye as my would-be island home. The next book I remember was the Life of Sir William Wallace, the fiery patriotism of which made me a terrible hater of tyrants. The first litera- ture I ever bought was the first number of the Saturday Magazine, to which I became a subscriber. The first volume was a book called the Wonders of Nature and Art. My first schoolmaster was an old man of the name of Arrowsmith. He lived to hear me preach, and gladly listened to his old pupil.' Love of Knowledge The young Samuel gained the elements of his education at three private schools in Birmingham, in the last of which, so great had been his proficiency, that he assisted in teaching. Even then study was to him Early Years 23 no task-work, but a delight. Then, as in after life, books were among his chief sources of enjoyment. At the age of four- teen he was well acquainted with the works of Wesley, Fletcher, Richard Watson, and some of the Puritans. The fact is, that the vital religion which had purified his heart had also quickened and exalted his intellect. In him the words were fulfilled, ' The entrance of God's Word giveth light, yea, it giveth understanding to the simple.' The foundation of his mastery as a thinker was laid in his knowledge of Holy Writ, and, however wide the reach of his studies in after years, the Word of God was the centre on which they all converged. By this Word his thoughts were raised above the trivial and the mean. He shared, in common with all sacred thinkers, A deeper transport and a mightier thrill, Than come from commerce with mortality. And that which elevated him in thought also elevated him in life. He borrowed the riches of eternity for the ennobling of 24 Samuel Coley the poverty of time. You cannot get grandeur into a man until you have in some way allied him to infinity and im- mortality. The oak cannot flourish or reach its natural growth in a flower-pot. You must give it the free winds and the immeasurable sky. So is it with human life. To reach its true proportions it must have heaven about it, and eternity beyond it. At this period young Coley's thirst for knowledge was intense, and led him to prolong his vigils far into the night. And his eagerness to impart knowledge was as marked as his passion to acquire it. His acquisitions were not a miser's hoard. He was as ready to distribute his wealth as to gather it. To him, from the first, teaching was a delight. He coveted no deeper joy. One who met with him in Christian fellowship during those early years, wrote : 1 Supreme in our class was Mr. Coley, though but a youth during his member- ship ; of beautiful classic mind, richly Early Years 25 stored with knowledge. His master, at whose side he worked as an apprentice, said to me, "Coley is a walking cyclopaedia." Mr. Coley see'riied to me, who up to the time of my conversion had neglected self- culture, a library in himself a circulating library too, for being ready to communicate, he brought out of his treasury things new and old, with great fluency, in his own felicitous style. His language was choice, and gave a charm to common things ; whatsoever he touched he turned to gold. Altogether he was head and shoulders above us all, and a marvel to many, reminding me of two graphic lines in* Goldsmith's "Village Schoolmaster," And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, That one small head could carry all he knew. I have not only a great admiration for Mr. Coley, but also a great and loving remembrance of him, for by a few kind words he led me to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.' It was evident to his parents, as well as to all who came into personal contact 26 Samuel Coley with him, that this godly youth, who was also a born teacher, would be eventually called to the Christian ministry. The winning of daily bread was, however, his first business ; and to this end, when little more than fourteen years of age, he was apprenticed to a gun engraver in his native town of Birmingham. In the work- shop in which he toiled he was exposed to many temptations and suffered con- siderable persecution. But he stood 'firm as the beaten anvil to the stroke.' Some of the men were infidels of sufficient intelligence to wield the negative arguments of Voltaire and his English disciple Tom Paine. This sent the studious youth to the works of Chalmers, Paley, Butler, and other defenders of the faith, thus grounding him in that mastery of Christian Evidence which served him so well, both in the pulpit and the lecture-room, in after years. Early Service for Christ About the same time he began to be an active worker in Christ's vineyard. A Early Years 27 Scripture Reading Association had been formed ; a number of converted youths met together on Sunday afternoons and went with others who were older to read and pray in various houses in the neigh- bourhood. He became a member of this band. One who frequently went with him writes, 1 1 was astonished at his ability in expounding the Word of God with such clearness, force, and freshness. As a prayer-leader he had much power, and a way of speaking so directly to God, that it was evident to those who heard him that he understood the secret of prevailing prayer.' He began to preach when about sixteen. He used to tell a story about one of his earliest services. He felt very anxious that a youth who had been to the same school with him should be led to the Saviour, and he prayed specially for him, every day, for a fortnight. The youth attended the service, perhaps out of curiosity, to hear how his old schoolfellow would preach ; and in the prayer-meeting afterwards came forward 28 Samuel Coley to the communion-rail as a penitent, became converted, and afterwards entered the ministry. Samuel Coley gradually attracted round him a number of Christian young men, some of whom became his special friends and met at his father's house for conversa- tion and prayer once a week. One who attended these meetings reports : ' Joyous of heart and of a very affectionate disposi- tion, he seemed to know, as by a delicate instinct, where cheerfulness ended and levity began, and was always able to keep within the boundary. In those gatherings we talked freely of books and topics of thought which made known to us his clear and logical mind. But nothing is better remembered than the manner in which he would lead us into conversation on the deeper spiritual truths of the gospel and engage us in prayer for a richer experience of those truths. Those evenings with Samuel Coley, at his father's house, are to those of us who were favoured with them bright spots in the past.' Early Years 29 On October 10, 1841, atTipton, he, for the first time, heard his cousin, Thomas Collins, preach. It was a memorable day in his spiritual history. He, himself, in his Life of Thomas Collins, tells how the preacher again and again pressed the question, ' Wilt thou not be made clean ? When shall it once be ? ' At last he was enabled to answer, not only with the lips, but with the soul, ' Now.' He adds, ' It was no flash of enthusiasm, it was a work of the Holy Ghost. Its force is still unexpended. That " now " stirs me yet. Nor ever since that memorable time has my faith dared to procrastinate, or say anything but "now" to all sanctifying offers of the promise-keeping God.' In 1844, being then nineteen, he became a candidate for the ministry, and was accepted by the Conference. But he was not yet out of his apprenticeship, and his master was not willing to give up so valuable a workman as he promised to be. Fifty pounds was demanded for the can- celling of his indentures. Unwilling to 30 Samuel Coley lay this burden -upon his parents, he made it a matter of earnest prayer. Before many weeks had elapsed a benevolent but eccentric gentleman brought his mother fifty pounds to be expended in any way she desired. Thus the difficulty was removed, and the devoted youth was called from the bench of the engraver in steel to print as with ' an iron pen ' upon human souls, words which shall endure When the sun is cold and the stars are old, And the books of the Judgement Day unfold. College Life In the September of 1844 Samuel Coley was^ admitted to the Richmond Branch of the Wesleyan Theological Institution, where he remained for three years. Here his blameless life, his diligence in study, and his remarkable gifts as a preacher, won the admiration and regard of all who knew him. His trial sermon at the College Chapel, preached soon after his entrance, made a great impression on his fellow students. There was a ripeness and maturity about Early Years 31 it which seemed truly extraordinary in one so young. And this was a striking characteristic of his early ministry. As we grow older we are apt to become impatient with the utterances of youth. The confidence and assurance, which is largely based on ignorance, frets and chafes us. We long for the words of one who has wrestled in solitude with the great problems of human life and destiny ; who has fought with the demons of doubt and -temptation in no martial posture, but on his knees ; who has suffered and wept as we have wept and suffered. Such, however, was the depth of this young student's spiritual experience that this irritating immaturity was never felt, even by the aged in his congregations. When he stood before the people it was evident that he had come from the divine presence- chamber to speak to men that, indeed, he had followed for himself the counsel given in a letter to a brother minister : * Go and talk with God on the mount of prayer, and then descend with shining 32 Samuel Coley face and transfigured soul to bless the waiting multitudes beneath.' Of those college days a fellow student writes : ' I remember his holy life at Richmond. It has been a blessing to me all through my ministry.' At college Mr. Coley was extremely delicate in appearance, more so, indeed, than in reality. Some feared as to whether the devout and serious youth, whose features were literally 'sicklied o'er by the pale cast of thought,' would ever live to enter into the full ministry. Appointed on one occasion, during his student life, to preach in a prosperous town in Bedfordshire, it was arranged that he should stay with a widow lady who was highly sensitive and nervous. On his arrival at the house the lady was so startled by his delicate appearance that she feared to entertain him ; with the result that she sent a note to one of the officers of the church entreating him to receive the student into his own house. To this he consented. After Mr. Coley Early Years 33 had preached on the Sunday morning, such was the effect of the sermon on the lady referred to, that she begged that he might be permitted to return to her for the remaining period of his sojourn in the town. ' No, madam,' replied his host, ' I find I have entertained an angel un- awares ; and such is the sacred influence of his presence in my home I could not surrender him to you on any consideration.' One of his student friends at Richmond was the manly and vigorous John Walton, who rendered such splendid service to Methodism in after years. ' Friend Coley,' he would say, 'when you stand up to preach you look so fragile that the people expect nothing from you. The result is that when they hear you they are filled with astonishment. Now, on the contrary, when I stand up they expect so much from a man of my appearance that they are never astonished and sometimes dis- appointed.' As a student Mr. Coley was only too diligent. In the record of his college days 3 34 Samuel Coley stories are told by his friends of the difficulty they had in persuading him to leave his desk for a run in the open air. Even the view from Richmond Hill, one of the most enchanting in beautiful England, could hardly tempt him from his beloved tasks. His salient mental gifts were : great soundness of judgement ; unusual powers of abstraction and generalization; a marvellously capacious and retentive memory ; and a bright fancy, ever ready to cast its light over the sombre steps of reason. To these gifts were added that quickness of mental insight which unearths hidden truths ; that keenness of logical analysis which tracks specious fallacies ; an intellect which, at once subtle and profound, could ' spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind ' ; and a moral discernment continually clarified by holy living and blessed intercourse with God. During his college life he was bereaved of both his parents. Of this double loss he wrote : ' I feel my- Early Years 35 self now to be peculiarly the Lord's. He is my Father. He loves me more tenderly than a mother. He is my portion and my all.' O blessed is the fatherhood which, when it passes hence, leaves its offspring consciously folded in the arms of the Divine Father ; and the motherhood whose pity and fidelity suggest The love which reaches infinite degrees Beyond the tenderness of human hearts. CHAPTER III CIRCUIT LIFE THOUGHTS Malice is anger gone cold. Selfishness is as greedy as the sea and as barren as the shore. Some professors are like the moon, very little light, less heat, and many changes. Cicero complains, Homer makes gods act like men. Grace makes men act like gods. The greatest truths are the simplest, and so are the greatest men. A man cannot be eloquent for atheism. In that exhausted receiver the mind cannot use its wings. We never know the true value of our friends. While they live with us we are too conscious of their faults ; when we have lost them we see only their virtues. A great step is gained when a child has learnt that there is necessary connexion between liking a thing and doing it. He who does evil that good may come pays a toll to the devil to let him into heaven. Never fight with a sweep. You cannot blacken him, but he may blacken you. , A man is no greater than God thinks him. To a farmer who went to market extremely anxious not to be cheated, a philosopher said that when he became just as anxious not to cheat another, his market-wagon would be as splendid as the chariot of the sun. SAMUEL COLEY. CHAPTER III CIRCUIT LIFE IN the year 1847 Samuel Coley left college and began his work as a Wesleyan minister in circuit life. So sincere was his attachment to the Church of his adoption that she never had among all her sons one more devoted to her interests or more powerful in her defence. He loved his own communion with a love which amounted to a passion, was proud of its high position among the Protestant churches of Christendom, jealous of its honour, and chivalrous in its defence. His attachment to Methodism was based, not merely on the fact that he was cradled in it, but on an intelligent conviction of its marvellous wisdom as a system of church order, adapted to all circumstances and to all time. He repudiated altogether the idea that it was a mere evangelical 39 40 Samuel Coley revival destined to die out with the heat of its first fervours ; on the contrary, he saw in it those elements which, on the scientific principle of the survival of the fittest, stamped it as something which was destined to endure, and not only to endure, but to spread, until the wide world should become in deed and in truth the parish of its great Founder. He specially delighted in its sympathy with the spirit and genius of primitive Christianity as attested by its evangelical earnestness and universal charity ; in its clearly defined scriptural system of doctrine, with its power to maintain it in its integrity ; in its unrivalled hymnology, by which the shafts of truth are feathered with the wings of holy song ; in the purity of its discipline, combining swiftness of action with absolute fairness of trial and the greatest possible economy ; in those peculiarities of church order which enable it to be so aggressive in its work yet so watchful over the spiritual interests of each individual member ; in its unswerving faithfulness to the great Circuit Life 41 principles of the Protestant Reformation ; in the liberality of its laity, combined with the incalculable wealth of their unpaid labour ; and in the genial and noble brotherhood of a ministry within the ranks of which the words of the Master pass into the splendour of a literal fulfilment, ' He that is greatest among you let him be your servant.' For a defence of Wesleyan Methodism against Anglicans without and dissidents within, I know of nothing in the literature of our Church which excels in convincing force the former part of the twelfth chapter of Mr. Coley's Life of Thomas Collins. Let those who desire to form some adequate estimate of the argumentative ability of the subject of this sketch turn to these pages pages which should be read and re-read by every Methodist, whether at home or abroad. Mr. Coley's first appointment was to Hastings, where he found a sphere of labour admirably adapted to his powers, and where, after the lapse of forty years, 42 Samuel Coley some of his sayings are quoted with delight by the veterans of the church. The facility with which his sermons were remembered, and the length of time for which they were retained, formed, indeed, one of the special characteristics of his ministry. In one of his addresses, that strenuous thinker and missioner, the Rev. Samuel Chadwick, says : 'The sermon which made the pro- foundest impression on me I heard when I was not more than ten years of age. Samuel Coley was the preacher. I was a little chap in a big chapel at the back of the gallery. He talked about the "lily among thorns," and I remember some things he said as though it were yesterday. He quoted the first Psalm. When he came to the sentence, "And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper," he said, " It is not what he thinks he will do, not what he hopes, and is going to do, not what he half does, not what he does ten minutes too late, but whatsoever he doeth promptly and thoroughly and heartily, and with Circuit Life 43 both hands, to the Lord, it shall prosper." ' After spending two years in Hastings Mr. Coley went to Southwark as assistant to the Rev. T. C. Ingle, and there he met the elect lady to whom he was united in marriage in the August of 1850. Highly strung, and naturally of a retiring dis- position, Mrs. Coley was little known beyond the confines of home ; but her devotion, both as a wife and a mother, was beyond all praise. The lines of James Russell Lowell might fitly have been ascribed to this faithful helpmeet of a hardworking minister of Christ : No simplest duty is forgot, Life hath no dim and lowly spot That doth not in her sunshine share. She doeth little kindnesses Which most leave undone, or despise ; For naught that sets one's heart at ease And giveth happiness or peace, Is low esteemed in her eyes. As a result of this union two sons were born, the elder of whom is a Wesleyan minister, and the younger a physician in Newcastle-on-Tyne. 44 Samuel Coley At the Conference of 1850 Mr. Coley was ordained and appointed to the Nottingham Wesley circuit. Owing to the disastrous Reform movement the church there was in such a depressed condition that a deputation of its officers waited on the Conference to plead for the withdrawal of their third minister, as they could not see their way to his support. During the services held at the Conference town, however, they heard Mr. Coley preach, and wisely resolved to receive him with open arms. It was a time of strife and division, and the heart of the young minister was bruised and torn by what he described as the ' havoc, blasting, and desolation/ which fell upon the Church he loved so well. But by the gentle forbearance of ' a meek and quiet spirit,' he disarmed opposition and alleviated bitterness and rebellion. One incident of these mournful days is worth recording. After preaching at a prosperous village near Nottingham, Mr. Coley met the united classes of the place Circuit Life 45 for the renewal of their tickets of member- ship in the Society. They all, with one consent, refused their usual contributions for the support of the ministry. Calm and collected, the young preacher said : ' You have resolved, then, to join in the cry of " stop the supplies," and to starve the servants of the Lord. I will not argue with you in your present mood ; but, before we part, let us pray together.' He then knelt down, and with tears in his voice pleaded with God that the bitter strife which was blighting and dividing His Church might cease, and that those present might be blessed and brought to a better mind. Deeply moved by the sorrow and the tenderness of the young preacher, on his retirement the people, without exception, renewed their con- tributions for the maintenance of the ministry, and ceased from further strife. Such was the spirit continually manifested by this Christ-like man, and thus did he ever seek 'to still the enemy and the avenger.' 46 Samuel Coley Thoughtful Eloquence After three years of service in Notting- ham, crowned with special blessing in the healing of divisions and the winning of souls, Mr. Coley was appointed to the Stockport (Tiviot Dale) circuit. Here he spent three years of a consecrated and successful ministry, removing at the end of that period to the Oxford Road circuit, Manchester. As far as it can be traced it was during these six years of ministerial service in Lancashire, ranging from 1856 to 1862, that a change took place in his pulpit style. The natural bent of his mind was meta- physical, analytical, logical. His early preaching was a model of close reasoning, not seldom kindling into that glow of genuine eloquence which has been aptly described as ' logic on fire.' The Rev. Dr. Dixon, one of the severest of critics, characterized his trial sermon ' as one of the best he had ever heard from a young man, remarkable alike for thought and expression.' It seemed, indeed, at one Circuit Life 47 time, as if he were destined to excel as a master of rhetoric and finished oratory. The following extract from one of his early Missionary speeches illustrates our point : THE ' NEW SONG ' ' St. John foreheard it, as it will be the universal song of this world. Not like that of the nightingale, confined to peculiar districts or sung only in solitary shades, the habitable globe shall vibrate as the heart of one man with the strain, "Worthy is the Lamb 1 " There are lands it has not yet reached, but it is on its way and will reach them as the light of farthest stars does earth. In Asia the songs of the people were idolatrous, but soon the harps of Diana were broken publicly on her altars. In Corinth, Ephesus, and Cyprus, the praise of Bacchus rang from every lyre. In the myrtle shades and on the vine-clad hills of Sicily, praises to the foam-born and abandoned Venus were sounded forth without secrecy or shame. But the " Song of the Lamb" soon silenced 48 Samuel Coley the impure odes of Anacreon and ended the orgies of Cybele. Yea, many of those who had joined in them, joined in it, and Paul said : " Such were some of you, but ye are washed, ye are sanctified." In Athens, all songs, from Hesiod's to Homer's, were devoted to deified men, or to imaginary gods, worse than men, but they faltered and failed before the " Song of the Lamb." Plato said : " It is difficult to find out the Creator of the universe, and when we have found Him, it is impossible to make Him known to the multitude." The "New Song," at first, had but a feeble choir "Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them " ; but ere long, Christian craftsmen knew and taught what Plato thought impossible, and the "New Song" silenced the orchestra of heathenism. In Rome the eloquent lyrics of Horace and the licentious songs of Ovid, the praise of bloody idols, and the tribute of servile poets to lustful and cruel Emperors, rang from palace to palace and from shrine to Circuit Life 49 shrine, while vice and error waxed full- orbed in the vile nest of the Caesars. But the " New Song " swelled upward from rank to rank, until from the low hum as of the imprisoned bee, it became as " the sound of many waters." ' Now take in contrast with this early outburst of prose-poetry the following thoughtful and suggestive outline of a speech, which may be headed AN APPEAL TO ENGLISHMEN. ' " Freely ye have received, freely give." We are debtors to the world, to illuminate and evangelize it. In proof of this, consider (i) Our Geographical Position. Herschel declared England to be the centre of the terrene globe. Test it for yourselves. Take a globe. Bring London to the zenith, and you will find that of all spots it is the nearest, the most accessible, and the most central of all the cities of the earth. Emerson said that " England resembled a ship in shape." Were it one, the ablest Admiral could not have brought 4 50 Samuel Coley it up to a more effective position. Anchored at the side of Europe, near enough to see her harvests wave, but remote enough to defy her armies. (2) Our Race. Lordly Roman, tiery Celt, patient, indomitable Saxon, storm-braving Viking, chivalrous Norman, blend in him. (3) Our vast Colonial Empire. Unlike Greece, or Italy, or Egypt, Britain lies not in a Mediter- ranean, bounded by a surrounding shore which may be coasted by timid mariners, but on the very lip and verge of the wide waste of waters. Her sailors, if they launch at all, must launch out on the brave old ocean, daring its western waves, its winter tempests, its fogs like palpable darkness, and all the dangers common to the mighty and changeful sea. Britain is the mother of nations. Commerce is her vocation and colonization the law of her progress. She has sailed east, west, north, and south, and planted empires. The United States, now her compeer, is her offshoot. Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Africa, are fast filling with Circuit Life 51 her sons. Ceylon and the Mauritius she occupies for trade. India obeys the whisper of her throne, and is being covered by a network of laws woven in her Anglo-Saxon loom. Japan opens at her word, and China refuses intercourse no more. Her cannon command the entrance to the Mediterranean, the chops of the Persian Gulf, the mouth of the Red Sea, and the straits of Malacca. Her ships whiten every sea. Her Consuls live in every port. Her Ambassadors speak before every throne. Europeans, Asiatics, Africans, Americans, and Australians, take her pay, eat her bread, do her work, fight her battles, and extend her fame. (4) Our Unequalled Influence. The result of power, freedom, wealth, and character. (5) Our Rich Heritage of Spiritual Advantage. Depositories, guardians, and dispensers of divine truth. (6) Our Language. The tongue which Shakespeare spake, which Milton consecrated, and which seems destined to become the universal speech.' As a further specimen of thoughtful 52 Samuel Coley eloquence we append the following out- line of A PLEA FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 'Once more the Church of Christ is awake, and has set forth on her errand of catholic mercy, and pledged herself to rest no more until the world is leavened with truth and won for her redeeming Lord. The breadth of the modern missionary movement marked the divinity of the impulse which originated it. It stirred the heart of Moravian and Baptist, Prelatist and Presbyterian, Independent and Wes- leyan alike. The progress of maritime discovery and the increase of intercourse with remote parts of the earth were secular preparations for missions. Young men, do you sometimes tremble for the ark of God amid the convulsions of the age ? Let the noble daring and God-honouring faith of the fathers and founders of our various societies encourage you. Those were not halcyon days in which they pledged their fealty to this glorious cause. It was amid the strange Circuit Life 53 hurly-burly of nations which followed the French Revolution they sent forth their messengers of peace and goodwill. Tempest and thunder filled the air, and fiery were the stars that gleamed in the horoscope of the birth of modern missions. They were cradled for conquest and empire amid storms. ' If it be asked whether modern missions have accomplished anything, we reply (i) Missions have furnished the age with its most touching illustrations of Christian principles. Sceptics may doubt, but peni- tent pagans believe. (2) Missions have enlarged the circle of Christian fellowship and prayer ; they have made the Church beautiful by exercising her charities, and strong by distant alliance. (3) Missions have followed the track of the navigator, anticipated the researches of the traveller, outstripped the enterprises of commerce, kindled the gospel lamp in the emigrant's home, and preached salvation to the perishing pagan. (4) Missions have ren- dered theology more practical and less 54 Samuel Coley polemic, made good men more inclined to work for a world than to contend for a word. (5) Missions have already ground many a grim Moloch, quenched the fires of Suttee, broken the fetters of the slave, gathered wanderers into towns, given elevation, strength, purity, and permanence to languages, originated literatures, erected markets, and laid the foundations of Empires. (6) Missions have blessed the world. As Peter walked at eventide his lengthened shadow fell on the gathered sick in the streets of Jerusalem and healed as it swept over them ; so Christianity goes through the world a sweet spirit of life and health, and fallen nations start up and live. The Missionary enterprise can- not fail. Devouring flames may destroy the trees of the forest, but cannot harm the bush of Horeb. Ships of Tarshish may founder, but the ark of God will outlive every storm.' The Illustrative Preacher Such was the class and style of cultured Circuit Life 55 and suggestive oratory which the subject of our sketch wielded in the earlier period of his ministry. In later years, however, mainly in- fluenced by his cousin, the Rev. Thomas Collins, he renounced, in a large degree, his metaphysics and his rhetoric, and adopted in preaching that unique and illustrative style for which he became so famous through the length and breadth of the land. In this change of method we recognize an act of intellectual self- sacrifice which we cannot choose but honour. Not for his own delight was this change made, but for the glory of God and for the deepening of his influence on the masses. 'With a wondrous simplicity,' says the late Rev. Robert Newton Young, ' instead of weaving attenuated webs of fancy, of extreme delicacy and beauty, as he could have done, he confined himself to setting forth the central truths of Christianity in a popular form. . . . He asserted over and over again that he should never have 56 Samuel Coley deviated from his early style, but for the deliberate conviction that God had given him powers in the other direction, which could be used with greater and more general effect.' This conviction was amply justified by the result. It lent such an entrancing charm to his succeeding ministry that 'old men and maidens, young men and children' were alike led captive by his spell. He illumined and enforced saving truth with a profusion of anecdote, a wealth of classical allusion, an affluence of apt and felicitous quotation, a fund of ready wit, and a winsome simplicity of familiar incident, which charmed his hearers and made the hour devoted to his sermons glide away almost imperceptibly. The range of his illus- trations on the various themes with which he dealt was so wide that, as one has said, ' in listening to him the hearer might well suppose that the preacher had read everything, had heard everything, had thought about everything ; and that all Circuit Life 57 his gathering of knowledge, of wisdom, and of experience had been made with special reference to the delivery of that one sermon.' Neither were his anecdotes and illus- trations dragged into his sermons without rhyme or reason. They were all used to illustrate the point in hand. To attempt a selection of his illustrations presents an embarrassment of riches seldom encountered by the biographer. Many volumes of this limited order might be profitably filled by them. The follow- ing, however, must suffice : When preaching once on ' Life's mysteries,' he said : ' A little girl was taking her father's dinner in a basket with a white cloth over it, and a passer-by asked her what she had in the basket, and she replied, " If my mother wanted you to know, she would not have placed a white cloth over it." THE MURDERER-TREE ' In Brazil there grows a common plant, 58 Samuel Coley which forest-dwellers call the Matador, or Murderer. Its slender stem creeps at first along the ground, but no sooner does it meet a vigorous tree than, with a clinging grasp, it cleaves to it and climbs, and as it climbs, keeps at short intervals sending out arm-like tendrils that embrace the tree. As the "murderer" ascends, these ligatures grow larger and clasp tighter. Up and up it climbs, a hundred feet, nay, two hundred if need be, until the -last, loftiest spire is gained and fettered. Then, as if in triumph, the parasite shoots a flowery head above the strangled summit ; and thence, from the dead tree's crown, scatters" its seed to do again the work of death. Even thus, worldliness has strangled more churches than ever persecution broke.' CHRIST REVEALING GOD 'Jesus Christ not only redeemed the world, but He also revealed the Father. God's work in creation was a going forth in the darkness. The listening universe Circuit Life 59 heard the roll of His chariot-wheels and beheld the manifestations of His power and wisdom, but His face was not seen. It is as though there once lived a mighty monarch of the gorgeous East whose people had seen his armies, heard of his fame, and studied his mighty works, but the monarch himself they had not seen, as he rode from his palace only in the night. On one memorable night, how- ever, as he comes forth, a costly jewel falls from his diadem into the dust. Torches are lit to recover the lost gem, and the light which finds the jewel reveals the face of the seeking king. Thus does the gospel light, which finds the lost jewel of our world, reveal the countenance of the seeker God.' THE ETERNAL CHRIST 1 When Ptolemy built Pharos he would have his name upon it, but Sostratus, the architect, did not think that the king, who only paid the money, should get all the credit, while he had none ; so he put 60 Samuel Coley the king's name on the front in plaster, but underneath, in the eternal granite, he cut deeply enough " Sostratus." The sea dashed against the plaster and chipped off bit by bit. I dare say it lasted out the time of Ptolemy, but by-and-by the plaster was all chipped off, and there stood the name " Sostratus." I am not sure that there ai 3 e"~n6t waves that will chip off all human names from the church of Christ, but I am quite sure that the one name of Christ shall last.' RELIGION AND LIGHT 1 Just as the sun gleams over the palace and into the cottage, flushing alike with its splendour the council-chamber of the monarch and the kitchen of the peasant ; i as the all -pervasive light fills the vast I dome of the sky and the tiny cup of the 1 flower ; so religion illumines at once the heaven of our hopes and the earth of our cares. Secularities become hallowed ; toil brightens with the smile of God ; business becomes crystalline ; light from. Circuit Life 61 God comes through it to us, glances from us go through it to God.' THE LIFE OF FAITH ' Have you ever thought of the life of a child ? Why, the life of a child is a perfect life of faith. That little child what can that little child do ? Why, that little child could not find its way to the street end and back again. It would be lost if you trusted it alone. That little child could not find the next meal. If you left that little child it would die of want. That little child could not furnish a shelter for its own head to-night, and yet, has that little child any fear about it ? Has that little child any sort of alarm about it ? Not at all ! How comes it that the child's life is the happy life it is ? Because, instinctively and beautifully, it is a life of faith. That child could not buy the next loaf, but it has a firm belief that "father" can. That child could not provide for itself the garments for to- morrow, but it has an unbounded belief 62 Samuel Coley in "father's" power to do it and mother's power to do it. That child could not do it for itself one day, but it never cost that child a moment's concern. Its life is a life of perfect faith in its parents.' Pleas for Holiness Another impressive feature of Mr. Coley's ministry was his witness for sanctity of heart and life. Personally blessed and exalted by a living experience of holiness an experience which placed his whole being on the altar of consecra- tion, constituted his home a sanctuary, and hallowed every exercise of his ministry he continually proclaimed it as the privilege, and not only the privilege but the duty, of all Christian believers. He never declared the love of God with- out calling for the response of perfect love from the believer's heart. For him, the gospel of mercy without the gospel of holiness was as God's voice without echo or answer. For him, perfect love in man was but the natural reflex of Infinite love Circuit Life 63 in God. Under his ministry Christians realized the solemn and awful beauty of their calling. The finest exposition of the doctrine of the sanctification of believers which we ever encountered was contained in a sermon from his lips on the words, ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' In that sermon he dealt, first, with the theme, Purity of heart ; second, with the affirmation, Blessed are the pure ; third, with the wondrous promise, They shall see God. ' The pure in heart/ he said, ' are those in whom the Holy Ghost has put forth the fullness of His cleansing power. The effect on the Understanding is that it is brought into moral sympathy with God ; on the Conscience, that it is illumined and made tender ; on the Will, that it is harmonized with the divine. The pure are blessed. The union of joy with holiness is one of the moral laws of the universe. Demonstrated in Good men, Glorified saints, Angels. If we inquire concerning 64 Samuel Coley its philosophy, it comes, By natural sequence. Sanctity and blessedness have the relation of cause and effect. The process of purity removes the great causes of misery : gnawings of remorse ; difficulty of keeping up fair appearances with the world ; carnal appetites ; evil passions, such as pride, malice, envy, revenge ; inordinate and foolish desires of wealth, honour, power ; a divided purpose, which always brings weakness. But, further, the process of purity brings into the soul all the elements of bliss : the resting of the soul upon its centre ; warmth and pro- tection under the shadow of the Almighty ; a tranquil and approving conscience ; peace through submission to the Highest. The wondrous Promise, "They shall see God." This is a promise for eternity. It implies intimate converse with the Deity. To see the King's face implies free inter- course. The saints shall see God not remotely, but face to face ; not transiently, but with an abiding vision. He will not confer on them one glorious flash of light, Circuit Life 65 but feed their immortality for evermore, as the sun feeds the glory of the planets. He will take them to Himself ; make them companions of His eternity ; reflect Him- self in them as the sun in the dew-drops. The term " beatific vision " is a symbolic phrase expressing the idea of a clear know- ledge of God. Here we see but shadows of His glory, and the reflex of His beauty, but there we shall see " face to face." ' Such is the brief, imperfect outline of only a part of one of the finest sermons we ever heard from consecrated lips. In harmony with this message was Mr. Coley's appeal to the Methodist Church in his 'Annual Address of the Conference ' issued in the year 1869. In this Address he says : ' Be spiritual. How else can you be ready to take part in what Mr. Wesley declared to be our vocation, namely, " to spread Scriptural holiness through the land " ? Dr. Clarke thought the great religious movement, in the bosom of which he found himself, more secure of 5 66 Samuel Coley permanence than any which had preceded it, because, with new clearness, it opened before the faith of believing men God's gospel of purity. The reason is good if we be faithful. But the sanctifying truth committed to us, if we merely keep it packed away in a definition, will be power- less as a sheathed sword. It must be made to tell upon life. Possibility of perfection in love, if a doctrine to be believed, must plainly be a duty to be urged, and an experience to be enjoyed. Though we put " perfect love " into our creeds as carefully as hydrographers do the North-west passage into their charts, it will be with as little practical result so long as we go not that way. 'Among teachers in the Church who have left their mark on the ages, John Wesley stands pre-eminent as the -great divine of religious experience. His glo- rious course began in himself with the joys of personal salvation. His work was not sharpening the corners of creeds, but declaring the life of God. His great Circuit Life 67 labour the success he sought lay not in the refutation of error, but in the salvation of men. You look along his track, not to find heresies crushed by his logic so much as souls quickened by his word.' Then follows the beautiful exhortation addressed to the people of his choice. ' Prayer will work marvels yet. Let us lay to heart the littleness of our increase ; let us crowd our meetings for prayer ; let us confess the whole fault to be ours ; let us mourn before the Lord ; let us plead with such desire as swelled the great heart of John Knox, when he cried, "O give me Scotland or I die 1 " Unto us, as unto our fathers, God will come. So shall we no longer be unto Him as a snow-clad vineyard, without fruit on the branches, or song in the grove. He shall say, " Awake, O north wind ; and come, thou south ; blow upon My garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." At that word the Spirit's influence, as the breath of spring, shall 68 Samuel Coley "K ' ; dissolve the frost. His vital ray shall penetrate the soil, quicken every tree, and touch into life, beauty, and fragrance every flower. Then the Lord Himself will walk again with joy in His paradise ; and beneath His eye the lily shall vie in white- ness with the light, the rose reflect the ruddy beams of the morning, the vine put forth her shoots, and the boughs be purpled over with clustering grapes/ CHAPTER IV THE PASTORATE DUST OF GOLD Sorrow brings out truths as night brings out stars. Discontent with others almost always comes from something wrong in ourselves. He has little music in his soul who cannot sing to another man's harp. Godless science reads Nature only as Milton's daughters read Hebrew : rightly syllabling the sen- tences, but utterly ignorant of the meaning. It requires the same power to melt the heart as to make it. The poorest beggar-babe transcends the sun in excellence, for that glorious orb knows not what it shines upon. He who cannot live well to-day will be less quali- fied to live well to-morrow. Every day has moments which, like those stray stars which lie outside all constellations, prove to have been unincluded by the most careful morning forecasts of engagement. One of these unpledged life-fragments may be of small value ; but the sum of such in a year constitutes an item of tremendous importance. The one cure for pride is the vision of God. Mercury is one of the brightest of the planets, and yet it is seldom seen. It rolls in an orbit so near to the sun that during a great part of the year it is lost in his beams. So the man who gets nearest God will have'selfleast seen. SAMUEL COLEY. CHAPTER IV THE PASTORATE UNLIKE some popular preachers, who give their whole strength to pulpit work, it never occurred to Mr. Coley that he was called to be a preacher only. He made ' full proof of his ministry,' and realized the wealth of meaning contained in the terms, ' Pastors and Teachers,' as found in. the Epistle to the Ephesians. In his Life of Thomas Collins he writes : ' None will suppose me likely to rate the value of preaching too low ; yet I say, woe comes of it when the Church can discern nothing in Christ's ambassadors except the glibbest tongues of the brotherhood. They degrade the vocation who see in it no other eleva- tion than that of the rostrum stairs. ' Who can tell the area of a room from its length ? Give me also its breadth. Thus, by square measure, did John Newton 72 Samuel Coley reckon clergy. " What, in the pulpit ? What, out of it ? " Minister is a bigger word than Preacher utters more ideas ; covers a wider field of duty. Minister servant of God ! Let none, moved by vain ambition, desire upon himself that label. It is a work-imposing, conscience- quickening name. Men expect him to be that Trinity in Unity Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher, welded into one. Heaven help us ! " Who is sufficient for these things ? " But, through the grace of God, Samuel Coley was found sufficient, as the writer, who worked with him as a colleague in the Birmingham Wesley circuit, can amply testify. Despite his numerous public en- gagements, occasioned by a popularity which called for special service from every district of the kingdom, he was frequently found in the homes of his people, and was specially regardful of the sick, the sorrow- ing, and the poor. He exemplified in the very noblest way the Apostle's fine defini- tion of religion, which reads : l Pure religion and undefined before our God and The Pastorate 73 Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.' Neither did he mock the poverty of the poor by visiting them with empty hands. His gifts to them were truly lavish, con- sidering his means. He moved among them as one to whom, as Herbert puts it : All earthly joys grow less To the one joy of doing kindnesses. He made a conscience of his appointments, and was scrupulously careful not to dis- courage the smaller and remoter places in his circuits. Another beautiful quality in this Christ- like man was the way in which he would seek out and encourage those who had done good service in the church, but who, by reason of age and retirement from more active work, were in danger of being overlooked and forgotten. The Class-Leader As a class-leader Mr. Coley was pre- eminent. His deep spiritual experience 74 Samuel Coley and tender Christian sympathy constituted the Society classes which he led in the course of his ministry, a means of grace of incalculable value. The counsels which fell from his lips to his doubting, tempted, or dispirited members were so hallowed and precious that the very memory of them is a benediction. Such utterances as the following were common : ' God made the world to be trampled on. Mind you keep it where He put it, beneath your feet.' ' Nothing worth having is gained by sin and nothing worth keeping is lost by holiness.' ' Do not imagine that you are forgotten by God. God has two thrones : one in the highest heavens, and one in the lowliest human hearts.' ' The loudest laugh of hell is the pride of dying rich.' ' It is better to be new-born than high-born.' ' Observed duties maintain our credit, secret ones our life.' ' I am glad you have been divinely helped. I know not indeed which is the greatest love, preparing a soul for heaven or heaven for a soul/ ' Covet the fruits of holiness, The Pastorate 75 and get into the sunshine of God's coun- tenance that they may ripen. Remember the distinction : works of darkness fruits of holiness. Man can do a work, but God only can make a fruit.' ' Do not be dis- couraged by seeming failure, but press on. Salvation is all of gift, that the poorest may come, the worst may hope, the proud may be humbled, and God may be praised.' ' Do not quarrel with your low estate if Christ is yours. A hut on the rock is ^ better than a palace on the sand.' ' You ' may stumble in your prayers, but God will interpret them aright. He will listen to \ the heart without the words, but not to - the words without the heart.' ' Do not be dismayed by the opposition of ungodly men. When a man is right he can never fall into a lower ministry than two Almighty God and himself.' Conversational Gifts Our sketch of Samuel Coley would be strangely imperfect if we did not allude to his wonderful conversational power. To 76 .Samuel Coley meet him in the homes of his people was indeed a delightful experience. We read in classic story how Alcibiades was forced to stop his ears and run away that he 'might not grow old' in listening to the talk of Socrates. How often have we felt what this meant when listening to the talk of Mr. Coley ! Some studious men are like a deep well without a bucket, others are as a fountain bringing all their wealth into the light. The maxim of Fontenelle that ' if a wise man has his hands full of truths he will open only his little finger/ is steeped in ignoble selfish- ness. ' It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Hence many of the noblest thinkers have also been great talkers. Ripe experience, if there be a kind heart at the root of it, is apt to teach. This was eminently the case with the subject of our sketch. He scattered freely the gold of his study and research. Unlike many talkers, who will unbend only in the society which is bright and appreciative, and are dumb where the surroundings are chilling The Pastorate 77 or adverse, Mr. Coley would brighten by sweet and helpful words the very dullest circle, ' casting his honey over the nettles ^ from which he could not extract it.' S Nevertheless, like all men who have any- thing to say worth hearing, he loved a good listener ; and, this secured, with that massive head thrown back and those kind eyes half closed in introspective musing, his speech, subtle and powerful, and pliant to all necessities of thought, would flow forth with such perennial freshness, and with such depth and sweetness in its moving music, that the memory of it is a joy to me for ever. Here also, as in the case of Socrates, was f a master of those who know.' In the current of this speech things human and divine blended their mystery and their meaning ; history gave in its testimony ; philosophy cast deep its plummet ; theology wedded the truths of earth to the lore of heaven ; religion pro- claimed 'the beauty of holiness/ and poetry proclaimed 'the holiness of beauty' ; light welled forth from new fountains ; truth 78 Samuel Coley issued from hidden caves ; familiar texts opened out into new discoveries of divine wisdom ; and rich illustrations, like storied windows in a marble chancel, poured their splendour on the sanctities of thought. It has been the custom of some literates to speak slightingly of Boswell, and we are all too apt to mingle a modicum of con- tempt with the cup of our thankfulness as we think of his services in relation to his ' burly idol.' Nothing, however, would delight me more than to be a Boswell worthy of this later Johnson. I append only a few of the many thoughts expressed in my hearing, some of them in the homes of our) people, but the majority of them in his own. For it was not the practice of Samuel Coley to be communicative in the houses of others and taciturn at home. On the contrary, those who saw the most of him saw the best of him, and his ordinary table talk was a continual in- spiration. How often have I sat enthralled beneath his spell on a Sunday evening, when, after the excitement of the day's The Pastorate 79 work, his great mind seemed like a sea swaying itself to rest ! Deep, serene, ten- der, twilight-haunted, and domed round by the starry cope of heaven, how grand then were its purple vistas, how rich and full its reflection of ancient lights of truth, and how sweet the cadence of its stately psalm ! Let us gather a little of this star dust. Envy no man his position ; he pays the price. MI Mere sensibility is not saving. Many are affected by the tragedy of the Cross who will not receive its doctrines or deny themselves a single indulgence for His sake who hung thereon. God is to the true saint what the sun is to the world. He shines on everything, and they see nothing but through Him and in His light. Christianity is God descending to the door of man's heart to get admission. To Pilate Jesus is silent. To those who read in scorn the inner lights of the Word are sealed. The truly happy life is a life in God. TheJL-*' brightest star cannot make day if the sun be set, or J^ the darkest cloud night if he be risen. They who disbelieve in virtue because man has never been found perfect might as reasonably deny the sun because it is not always noon. We should be a stronger Church if we were more 80 Samuel Coley stringent with respect to membership. Few and good is best, as God taught Gideon. When the just Judge gives crowns at last, some of the very brightest will flash on unexpected brows. All revelations are concealments. God ever hides more than He reveals. The measure of the lesson is not what you can teach, it is what the child can take in. Revelation is not what God knows, but what you can take in. As the sea catches the hues of the sky, so some men catch the character of their company. There are stronger lights under the gospel dispen- sation and also stronger shadows. Sin under the law was sinful ; under the gospel it is intensely so, for here we not only break the restraints of law, but also those of love. God, like the sun, which feeds the glow of the planets, will feed the glory of His saints. In glory all will be perfect, but all will not be equal. Every soul will be full of bliss, but some will have the capacity of a wine-glass, others of a goblet. The tumbling of Empires no more kept back Messiah's reign than did the storms of night the glory of the sunrise. The Cross is the gem of which the whole world is the setting. When the great historic painting yet on the easel of the ages receives its last touch from the finger of time, in the light of eternity the mightiest deeds of men will be seen to be but border and background of the Cross. The Pastorate 81 The fear of God and the love of God are the centrifugal and centripetal forces of the moral universe, holding the creature reverently distant from the Creator, yet compassing the child about with ever- lasting love. We need light from heaven to guide us on earth. Terrestrial charts cannot be accurately constructed without celestial observations. . Many of the agents of Providence ' know not what they do.' The hirelings who made the cross little supposed it was to be the world's ladder to heaven, and with all the vulture-keenness of the vision of fiends, hell's craftiest has been astounded at the issue of his own deeds. A mightier mind than Satan's has foiled his craftiness, and yoked him captive to the Redeemer's car. Not less edifying and helpful than his conversation were Mr. Coley's lucid yet profound expositions of divine truth. In the week-night prayer-meeting, in his own home, and in the homes of others, if was his invariable habit to expound the Scrip- tures. On these occasions his lips dropped marina and Airs from Paradise did fan the house. For depth of spiritual insight the writer has heard nothing equal to these unf oldings 6 82 Samuel Coley of the Word. And they were often re- membered with thankfulness for long periods of time. Pursuing his usual custom at a home in Brighton, his host said : ' I am glad you continue that. We have not forgotten what you said fourteen years ago.' Care for the Young A special feature in Mr. Coley's ministry was his tender and thoughtful care for the young. He was ever mindful of the fact that our young people will be the men and women of the future. At present the world is merely their playground ; but ere long they will wield its hammers, direct its industries, fight its battles, sing its songs, create its homes, mould its constitutions, shape its destinies. Personally conscious, as we have already seen, of the divine acceptance while yet in infancy, he claimed all the children for Christ. In a sermon preached on behalf of the Sunday School Union in May 1865, we find the following on the meaning and The Pastorate 83 importance of Sunday-school work : ' Every institution is the shrine of a thought, the incarnation of an idea, the faithful outworking of which is its mission. Truth to its central and vital principle is the law of its being and the pledge of its success. What are the principles to which you are bound ? Such as these : That godly nurture is essential to any worthy conception of education, so that without it all teaching or training must be miser- ably incomplete and defective ; that divine truth is graciously adapted for the very earliest presentment to the youthful mind ; that it is the duty of the Church, as far as possible, to stand in loco parentis to all outcast, unpitied, or undisciplined youth to become the foster-mother, and, so far as her means can reach, to take upon herself the culture of the world's moral orphanage ; that it is your duty to work in her behalf for this very end. After some manner or other we must win the youth of our land for Jesus. The City wants them. This done, at no distant day i 84 Samuel Coley drunkenness would cease to stagger in our streets, blasphemy would be silenced, and the brazen front of lewdness banished from our highways. The Country wants them. The youth of the nation saved, how certain the glory of the nation's future ! Then would the homes of the land be happy, its institutions strong, its policy hallowed, and all its interests bap- tized with the benedictions of heaven. The Church wants them. Great is the work, and the labourers are few. Standard- bearers continually fall ; rising champions are needed to bear on the banners of the host of the Lord. The World wants them. Who are to dispel its darkness, remedy its evils, wipe away its tears in the coming age ? The Saviour wants them. For every one of them the bitter pains of His passion were endured. For all of them in His heart there is love ; in His cause there is work ; in His heaven there is room.' And not to the Sunday school only did Mr. Coley delegate this important work. He The Pastorate 85 brought up his own children ' in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,' and he established in his circuits Bible-classes for the young, which were fruitful in blessing. In regard to ministerial work among children he was strongly in favour of the Scotch system of cate- chizing. He says, in one place, ' Scotch catechizing, if we could impart it into English churches, would be the best thing that ever crossed the Tweed. . . . The lambs will never be fed by a mere sermon-mill. Hooker says : " The delivery of elements should be framed to the tender capacity of beginners." They must be catechized. The minister must do in divinity what Socrates did in philosophy. Surrounded by untaught youth, his business is to instruct, by questioning, knowledge into them, and to examine, by questioning, knowledge out of them. The skilful dealer with children does both : he first instils and then extracts.' In this connexion Mr. Coley's views on Infant Baptism are of great value. He 86 Samuel Coley held that children from their birth belonged to Christ were redeemed by Him, saved by Him ; and that the rite of baptism acknowledged this fact and placed upon them what he calls ' the seal-mark of the Great Proprietor.' ' Baptism,' he says, 'does not cause the child's relation to Christ, but attests it. The farmer marks his lambs, not to make them his but t because they are his. So we baptize the I children, not to make them Christ's, but \because they are Christ's.' This fact acknowledged, he urges on the parents the solemn obligation of training their children up for Christ. Their pres- ence at the font admits the claim of Christ on their children, and their future con- duct should accord with that act of conse- cration. Of a trust so precious, so solemnly acknowledged, and so sealed, they are bound in the after-time to render account. Mr. Coley thus writes on Education in Godliness : ' Education in its highest form is moral ; its most majestic aim is the The Pastorate 87 formation of character. To be complete it must have many parts. We need teaching, for we are ignorant ; correction, f8r we are wrong ; development, for we are immature ; discipline, for we are un- practised ; direction, that every faculty may bear upon the noblest ends. ' All truth is important ; but all truth is not equally important. Truths are im- portant to us just in so far as they involve our interests. Since religious truths relate to our highest, most vital, and eternal interests, they are and must be the most important. Hooker says, " Education is the means whereby reason is made both sooner and better to judge rightly between truth and error, good and evil." John Milton defines the end of learning to be, " to repair the ruins of our fall ; to bring us to know God aright ; and of that knowledge to love, serve, and be like Him." ' A head crammed is very far inferior to a character formed. We want Christians. That achieved, education has issued in a 88 Samuel Coley result worthy of its name ; for then has the being subjected to its processes been led forth to its highest possible reach. " The Christian, he alone is great ; the Christian, he alone is wise." ' CHAPTER V THEOLOGICAL TUTORSHIP COUNSELS TO MINISTERS A faithful minister is the envy of angels, an un- faithful one the laughter of devils. On no other condition should we extend one hand to receive honour but that with the other we should transmit it to God. It is a grander thing to win a soul for Christ than it would be to launch a new star into space; for when all the stars are dim that soul will shine on, reflecting the glory which comes from the counte- nance of God. Do you aim at the greatest moral development ? Then go oft and stay long with the volume of the Book. Would you understand the Bible? Then, like Hezekiah, take the letter before the Lord. Believe in the influx of God into man, the return of Deity to the sin-desolated soul. You will find in the after-time that the good you have done in the world was far more on individuals than on crowds. Be as jealous for the honour of Christ as for your own. The world is a whirlpool in which many a noble ship has gone down. Beware of it. Do your duty in an obscure position if you would rise to a prominent one, like Epaminondas the Theban, who, being twitted for being placed in an obscure position, replied, ' I will fill it so well that hereafter it shall be honourable.' SAMUEL COLEY, CHAPTER V THEOLOGICAL TUTORSHIP THE later circuits of Mr. Coley's itinerancy were London, City Road ; London, Brixton Hill ; Birmingham, Wesley ; London, Highbury ; and Black- heath. It was in Birmingham that he gave to the Church that Life of Thomas Collins which has been so frequently referred to in these pages. It is a biography, to use his own words, ' wealthy in such things as will thrill holy souls, instruct young ministers, and stimulate all true hearts.' As a handbook for evangelists it stands without a rival. It has, indeed, attained the position of a classic. The retirement of the Rev. John Lomas from the Chair of Theology, at Headingley College, in 1873, led to the appointment of Mr. Coley to that difficult and re- 91 92 Samuel Coley sponsible post. His election was a surprise to some who knew him only superficially, but his lectures delivered to the students amply vindicated the wisdom of the appointment. That was a just and discriminating tribute of the Rev. R. N. Young, when, addressing the students of Headingley, he said, ' Your theological tutor is one of the greatest living ex- positors of holy writ.' Mr. Coley regarded theology as a science, and the queen of the sciences. Thus he possessed that first requisite for success in his work, an adequate appreciation of its greatness. In the introduction to his lectures we read, 'Theology is the most comprehensive, important, and noble of all the sciences. God and man are the terminals of theology. A theological system is a methodical arrangement of the doctrines revealed in Holy Scripture, such as will make manifest their connexion with, relation to, and dependence on each other. System is not a monopoly of divinity. Any sane man must generalize, classify, and define ; and Theological Tutorship 93 it is in this way that the science of the present day has arrived at what it is. The essentials of a good system of theology are three : consistency, completeness, and simplicity.' With this estimate of the science he was called to teach, the entire method of Mr. Coley kept chime. Firm in his grasp of the great central verities of the faith, and clear in his apprehension of their harmonious relations, he ex- pounded them with a lucidity and defended them with a force which left nothing to be desired. And, while his entire system, as presented in the three years' course of lectures, was round and perfect as a star, there were parts of the great whole, as those of his students who copied his notes on the Roman Catholic controversy will bear me witness, which assumed colossal proportions. With him nothing was obscurely uttered, because nothing was obscurely thought; and in dealing with baseless sceptical assumptions or with the arrogant opposition of science, falsely so called, his words were like Luther's, ' half 94 Samuel Coley battles/ and his tread that of a Titan. He studied with great care the development of dogma, as defined by the creeds and councils of succeeding ages of ecclesiastical history, and was well versed in the great masters of theologic lore. In this science he was truly cultured, knowing the best which had been said and written. Mighty in the scriptures, all fragmentary truths he carefully tested and adjusted by the analogy of faith, while error reeled and fell before the trenchant sword of the Spirit. His also was that Ithuriel spear of a fine spiritual discernment, before which the disguises of falsehood were stripped off, and the lurking fallacy appeared after its own likeness. Carefully guarding the Bible in its integrity and full authority as the sufficient and only rule of faith, some might have deemed him narrow in his views of truth. But the words he used with respect to Thomas Collins were equally true of himself, where we read, ' He had no desire to be considered a many-sided man. He made no pretensions Theological Tutorship 95 to that breadth of thought in praise of which the cant of to-day is so loud. Much of it is as broad as the unbounded air, and as thin.' While not deeply versed in Greek or Hebrew, he had yet mastered sufficient of both to enable him to appropriate the finest results of scholar- ship, while at the same time he was happily free from that bane of many scholars, the despotism of a verb or a particle. He dealt with great principles rather than with small details, and went straight to the heart and kernel of the matter, in place of merely playing about the husk. The Witness Within Yet further, Samuel Coley had the witness within of the reality of the truths he taught. As a theologian he was specially strong through the reality and depth of his own spiritual experience. A quiet master of the inner secrets of the spiritual life, he testified of the things he knew, and not the things he had merely 96 Samuel Coley dreamt about. Divine things are 'spirit- ually discerned.' They are not revealed to the brute, or to the brutish man. The greatest of all teachers said : ' If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of Myself ; and again, 'My judge- ment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.' \ Sanctity of life brings clearness of vision. Perfect obedience to the will of God gives an insight into spiritual truth as infallible as the flight of the migrating swallow, or the instinct of the bee. The greatest spiritual teachers are spiritual men, and Samuel Coley was one of these. His doctrines were not mere opinions ; they were transmuted into his life, they were the very breath of his being. God was for him a great reality, because he walked with Him and talked with Him. Christ was for him a Divine Saviour, because He had taken away his sins, and blessed him with the abiding benediction of His peace. The Holy Ghost was for him a divine Theological Tutorship 97 Person, because he knew Him as the indwelling God, the sustainer and cherisher of his spiritual life, The anchor of his purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of his heart, and soul Of all his moral being. His teaching was the outcome of that insight of the 'pure in heart,' which transcends alike the ethics of the moralist, the reasonings of the logician, or the dreams of the poet. To him also was given the rare power of making Theology interesting and attrac- tive. Beneath his fresh and powerful intellect old truths lighted up with new meanings, the breath of his creative fancy made dry bones live, and the brooding glory of his consecrated spirit caused the barren rod, like Aaron's beneath the Shekinah, to bud and blossom and bear fruit. One of his students, a Master of Arts of London University, said to the writer, 'The chief benefit received from the lectures of Mr. Coley was this, that he made theology so winsome and interest- 7 98 Samuel Coley ing, that the study of it was a delight.' A Dissolve! of Doubts Mr. Coley was also a potent dissolvcr of doubts. No part of his career as a theological professor was more fruitful than his answers to the various questions of the students on points presenting special difficulties to faith. Here his strength and subtlety as a dialectician manifested itself with peculiar force ; and the eager listener knew not which most to admire, the breadth of his culture or the keenness of his unsparing logic. Before his appointment to Headingley, it was for years a beautiful custom with him to send for any student who happened to be supplying in his circuit, and ask, with a sweetness the very memory of which breathes a perpetual benediction, ' Now, my brother, is there any mental difficulty in which I can help you ? ' Neither could any go forth from his presence unimpressed by a saintliness, a tenderness, and a wisdom, such as have been granted Theological Tutorship 99 to few among the sons of men. Of his service in the Theological chair, and the lectures given to the students, we can furnish in this brief vignette no adequate record. The following refutation, in brief, of the theory of ' Immortality only in Christ/ is worthy of quotation : ' i. Those who hold this view assume that in the language of the Scripture death and extinction are identical, which is manifestly untrue. ' 2. They reject the underlying reason in the value of man's nature justifying the unparalleled divine outlay for the re- demption of man. ' 3. God found man a sinner but by nature a passing evil : why not let him pass ? '4. Patriarch and sage found reasons for faith in immortality which were not based on any alteration produced by Christ.' As an example of his treatment of yet profounder themes, we append the following fragment : 100 Samuel Coley THEISM AND MODERN THOUGHT 1 i. Theism but supposes the action of a cause which from our own conscious- ness we know really to exist, namely, the force of intelligent personal will. ' Is the cosmos, can it be, the result of blind, mindless force ? Or, is it not, must it not be, the beautiful result of intelligent aims ? ' 2. Everybody admits ex nihilo nihil fit ; we further claim that nothing can be produced by an inadequate cause. ' Beauty, order, fitness, life, intelligence, personality, conscience, these things are ; for these things, therefore, adequate cause must be ; but matter and force are not such causes. 1 3. Herbert Spencer and his admiring "agnostics" give and persist in just one reply : "Not knowing we cannot say." . . . It seems, then, from anything they know of the matter that we may be right. '4. Avowed ignorance, by a startling paradox, is set forth as surpassing wisdom. Spencer admits there is something back of Theological Tutorship 101 all visible things, but claims that his awful unknowable is a conception much grander than that of our personal God. We willingly give up this magnificence of darkness for vision of our Heavenly Father's face. ' 5. We are told that this infinite mystery as much transcends our anthropomorphic notions of intelligence and will, as intelligence and will transcend mechanical motion. Suppose we admit that the forms of theological speech are anthro- pomorphic, we affirm the notions and formulae of their philosophy must be so too. Neither sages nor saints can rid man of himself. Man can no more go beyond humanity than an eagle can outsoar the air which bears it up. Their conceptions of force are as anthropomorphic as our thought of God. ' 6. Divine ubiquity means omnipo- tence, whole, everywhere. My thought of omnipresent Deity is this, that every point in the whole universe is focal for the power of God ; that every supposeable 102 Samuel Coley inch of measureless space is a centre of omnipotent force ; and that, as well, God can exercise His whole energy therein. . . . The indivisible God, One in the infinity of space, is whole at every point, i.e., can know, and love, and do, with the whole force of Godhead everywhere.' CHAPTER VI PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS WORDS OF HOPE AND CHEER x By-and-by every mystery will be found a mercy. V Mechanicians say that an absolute balance is *^ beyond the reach of art. >^ If there is any seeming delay in God it is only ' such delay as belongs to the steps of majesty. -. ' Cemetery' means sleeping-place. * Not vainly did our fathers call the burying-place ' God's acre.' It is sown with the seeds of God's harvest, and the day of resurrection is God's reaping-day. One who lost his mother by death said, ' The same God who has wiped away her tears by taking her to heaven, has wiped away mine by the assurance that she is there.' The Great Throne is white. Dark clouds may have veiled it, vivid lightnings may have draped it, the emerald rainbow arched it. But the throne itself is white. No spot has ever stained it. It is neither crimsoned by cruelty, tarnished by injustice, nor dimmed by decay. That they have not become indissolubly one ; that the serpent and the man have not, as in Dante's awful image, grown together, each melted into the other, but that they are still twain, this is the element of hope with regard to fallen man. Sin may be taken from him. ' The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.' Time was when Chrysostom finished a speech on the spread of gospel truth from the Aegean to the German Ocean by saying, ' Britain possesses the Word of light.' In more than two hundred languages she now gives that Word to the world. SAMUEL COLBY. CHAPTER VI PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS ALL noble work and teaching spring from some inherent nobleness of character and life. The quality of the stream is as the quality of the fountain. Our dearest helpers are those who have chosen to be pure and good, and thus to draw after them the tears and blessings of their kind. It is so with regard to the subject of this sketch. The prominent personal characteristics of Samuel Colefy were saintliness and geniality. First of all he was a saintly man. He 'walked with God.' His life was spent as within the precincts of a temple its words worship, its thoughts incense, its deeds sacrifice. With him piety seemed not so much an effort as a state of nature the habit of his life. It 105 106 Samuel Coley was as natural as light from a star, or as perfume from a flower. When he prayed God seemed so near that the listener was not seldom startled by the evident famili- arity of the creature's intercourse with the Creator. Yet with this conscious nearness of access no touch of irreverence was blended ; it was but the intimacy of the holy child with the < Holy Father.' God was felt to be not less in heaven because He was so near to His suppliant on earth ; and not less throned in eternity because He had also found a home in a soul limited by the conditions of time. But while the sanctity of Samuel Coley was so pre-eminent, it was free alike from narrow- ness and from repellent austerity. From the one he was delivered by his broad culture, and from the other by his loving heart. His goodness had a charm about it which made you long to dwell in the same atmosphere. Men saw in him 'the beauty of holiness.' During the months of my residence under his roof I never once heard him Personal Characteristics 107 speak in unrighteous anger, or utter an ungenerous criticism ; neither did I observe anything in his life which led to any faltering in the witness which its whole spirit and character compelled me to render, of ' Mark the perfect man and behold the upright.' Of the purity and sweetness of his home intercourse I can scarcely permit myself to write. Let it suffice to say that never was a delicate, nerve-shaken wife enriched by a love more exquisitely considerate and tender ; and never did sons more fully realize all that is included in the word ' father.' Geniality Another prominent characteristic of Samuel Coley was his uniform geniality. This beautiful grace filled with sweetness and light a face which must otherwise have appeared unusually massive and sombre. His features were transfigured by the gentleness and kindness of the soul which pervaded and looked through them, ' a smile ever playing on the broad, 108 Samuel Coley deep brow, like summer sunshine on the sea.' That was a charming compliment paid him by a little girl, who said, ' Mother, I like to see that nice-looking face which speaks so kind.' It has been said that every face should be beautiful at forty. There is truth in this, for we are all sculp- tors shaping both body and soul in such fashion as we ourselves ordain. By the time they are forty, people have had the opportunity to make themselves beautiful in expression at least, if not in features. There is a distinct connexion between a beautiful face and a beautiful life, and through the grace of gentleness Mr. Coley had made a plain face beautiful. He was one of the gentlest of all human creatures. Entering his study on one occasion I found him chasing on the window-pane a blue-bottle fly whose ceaseless buzzing had disturbed his thinking. Having at last caught it he opened the window, and, releasing it, said, * Go, little creature ; I will not take thy life.' Personal Characteristics 109 Intellectual Power Another element in Mr.Coley demanding special notice was the vigour of his intellect. That broad, deep forehead held within it a brain which was remarkable not only for quantity but also for quality. And that brain was the organ of a mind marvellously active, subtle, and profound. This fact was veiled to many by the simplicity of his manner and by the free use of anecdote in his public utterances, but it is a fact nevertheless. There is an important differ- ence between child-likeness and childish- ness. Mr. Coley was child-like, but not childish. Simple in style and manner he undoubtedly was, but this simplicity was far removed from shallowness. The illus- tration by figure or by anecdote might fill with a sweet light of laughter the eyes of the peasant or of the little child, but the underlying truth was great and deep enough to delight a philosopher. No objection to this great man appears to me so puerile as that founded on his rare simplicity ; for did not the Divine Teacher 1 1 Samuel Coley adapt His utterances to the common un- derstanding, simplifying the profoundest truths by the free use of parable and apologue, by common things in nature and familiar things in daily life ? As a student Mr. Coley was diligent beyond the bounds of discretion. It was customary with him to labour nine hours a day, and it is to be feared that his too early death may be .in great measure at- tributed to that love of mental work which led him to deny himself that measure of physical exercise which is essential to vigorous health. His work as a student was characterized by great thoroughness and by rigorous method. Nothing was done carelessly, and nothing was per- mitted to fall into disorder. Light, love, and labour unto life's last height, These three, were stars unsetting in his sight. He was an omnivorous reader, and his love for books transformed his whole house into a library. At the time of his death his books could not have numbered less than five thousand volumes. And Personal Characteristics 1 1 1 these volumes were of no ordinary kind, since all through life he acted on the principle of eliminating the worthless and preserving the valuable. Time-stained vellum and brilliant cloth, the antique and the modern, stood side by side, representing the finest results of human reason, exegeti- cal, critical, theological, philosophical, and historic. But the most remarkable feature in a visit to this library was that the broad- browed thinker who moved among these various teachers seemed the master of them all. You could not point to a book the excellences or defects of which he had not weighed, and the pith and marrow of which he could not embody in a few vivid and luminous words. Strength of Will Another noteworthy feature in the char- acter of Mr. Coley was the strength of his will. Professor Huxley, in his ideal f picture of a marTraKed by an all-round culture to the true height of manhood, instances as a foremost element in his 1 1 2 Samuel Coley character 'a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience.' This Samuel Coley possessed in a very high degree. He was no reed shaken by the wind, but an oak deep-rooted to resist the shock of storms. Beneath all that meekness and playfulness of manner which invested him with such a delicate and winning charm, there was an underlying strength of purpose which, though it might escape the ordinary ob- server, as from a distance the trunk of the tree may be hidden by the leafage of drooping branches, was yet well known to his intimate friends. None who ever witnessed the intensity of his righteous indignation toward those who, through their evil example or their false teaching, ' robbed him,' as he expressed it, ' of his children/ could doubt that beneath his habitual gentleness of manner there lay a giant's force. Wherever principle was involved he would not swerve even by a hair's breadth, for the still, small voice of conscience in which God spake was more to him than all earthly clamour of storm, Personal Characteristics 1 1 3 or earthquake, or fire. Ever gentle in reproof, and ever eager to conciliate the estranged or the quarrelsome, he could yet be stern in presence and bold in action towards persistent wrongdoing. His quiet energy of character was in nothing more impressively displayed than in his dealing with unreasonable men who, through the worship of some poor crotchet, or the desire to make some empty parade of power, set themselves to obstruct and hinder the work of God. Almost imper- ceptibly, but nevertheless surely, their influence in the councils of the Church waned and dwindled, and ere they were ware they were left stranded on the poor mudbank of their own conceit while the good work went on. Wisdom Another noteworthy feature in Samuel Coley was his wisdom as a counsellor. To this remarkable man there was given not only knowledge but also wisdom, finding its root in vital piety. He was pre-eminently 8 1 1 4 Samuel Coley a Christian philosopher. In his judgement of men and things he endeavoured as far as possible, to stand on a line with God his will, his purpose, his righteousness, his charity. ' He set the Lord alway before him, he walked before the Lord in the land of the living.' Hence he was wise with the wisdom which springs from sanctity, and from the nobleness of an absolute, unselfish devotion to the great end of life. His eye was single, and, as a natural result his whole body was full of light. In the public councils of our church his voice was seldom heard a fact which led me on one occasion to express to him personally my surprise, on which he modestly replied that he felt there was no need for him to speak, inasmuch as his views were expressed by others, and that more forcibly than they would have been by himself. In private life, however, he was peculiarly rich in counsel, his sugges- tions for the guidance of conduct and the shaping of character being pure and bracing as the breath of the sea. Personal Characteristics 1 1 5 An extract from a letter sent to the writer in a time of mental difficulty will illustrate the wisdom of his counsels : Do not worry yourself too much with sceptic ques- tions ; dwell deep live inwardly. What is religion for? To make me good. What is goodness ? Conformity to God's designs. What is sin ? Following my will as against His. What is purity ? Sincerity of intention to please God in all we do. How is this maintained? By the indwelling of Christ. How is Christ within us? In the mind, by a true idea of Him. In the faith, by a hearty trust in Him. In the will, by a practical submission to Him. In the heart, by a fervent love for Him. In the life, by all-sustaining grace from Him Plunge into the bath of Calvary every morning and be clean. *T Gaze on the Man acquainted with grief, borne for you, and love. Go forth, after Him, doing good, and work. Let these underlie all, as primitive rocks do the fruitful soil ; may they pervade all, as principles do I actions ; vitalize all, as love does work. Christ-like Charity Another beautiful feature in Samuel Coley was his Christ-like charity. He was 1 1 6 Samuel Coley utterly free from all bitterness, turning aside with noble self-mastery even from ' the hate of hate, and the scorn of scorn.' He could bless those who cursed him and pray for those who despitefully used him. He never blazed into holy indignation, except against the destroyers of the souls for whom Christ died. Neither did he imagine, as a thinker, to use an expression from Goethe, that he could see and measure the world from his own church steeple. Perhaps the man in connexion with the Church with whom he had the scantiest sympathy was the sacerdotalist. He who, calling himself a priest, robbed Christ of His honours by usurping His title and His work, was to him specially objection- able. Yet even of these men he thus spoke in an address at a Wesleyan mis- sionary meeting in Exeter Hall : ' I believe there are some persons talking nowadays as if religion in this country were falling off. I don't believe it. I don't believe there was ever as much true Personal Characteristics 1 1 7 religion no, nor as much proportionally, in this land, as there is to-day. Mind you, on missionary platforms we get inclined to be very catholic and kindly. Even a civilized hedgehog will uncoil its ball and lay back its spines when it is in good company. I suppose nobody will think me likely to fall in love with Puseyism. I don't much believe in those who go to the dark ages for light ; I don't much believe in those people who go to Hilde- brand and Borgia for their succession ; I don't believe in those who go to tradition for certainty ; and I could tell you many other things I do not believe in. But I am bound to say I believe that in that High Church movement there is a great deal more godliness than many people think, and that in its adherents there is a great deal more of the love of God than many of them get credit for. I am not speaking of mere ritualism that alone would soon be crushed out ; but there is a core of goodness somewhere, a spirit and power of love ; and whilst we deplore the 1 1 8 Samuel Coley errors and detest some of the things that are connected with it, I believe that, after all, in the reviving power of the Church of England in this land, there is something in which we ought to rejoice.' CHAPTER VII TWILIGHT AND MORNING FACSIMILE OF SERMON OUTLINE CHAPTER VII TWILIGHT AND MORNING ON the retirement of the Rev. John Farrar, Mr. Coley was elected to the chairmanship of the Leeds District, an office which added largely to the burden of his work. It is indeed a characteristic of Methodism that it confers no dignity without its accompaniment of toil. Soon after he received a significant nomination to a still higher office the Presidency of the Conference. On my writing to con- gratulate him on the approaching honour, he replied with his usual modesty : ' My standing so near the chair arose simply from the unprepared-for absence of Dr. W. B. Pope. It will greatly surprise me if I stand so near again. But, you, I think, know that it really awakes in me no desire. I am certain that it would be 131 122 Samuel Coley a cross ; I more than doubt whether it would be a crown.' Meanwhile, assiduous study, with few intervals of exercise and recreation, were slowly undermining his health. Gradually, but only too surely, the tired brain re- fused to act as the organ of the mind, and his fine intellect became clouded. In 1878 the state of his health was such as to excite the apprehension of his friends, and it was felt that the labour of the Presidency would be extremely perilous. Hoping that the sea voyage and the total change of life and work might prove beneficial, he was appointed as represen- tative to the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada. His fame as a preacher had travelled to America, and his biography of Thomas Collins had thrilled and blessed multitudes in that Continent ; so that the news of his appointment as the representative of the British Conference was hailed with delight. He was able to take many services in Canada, but could not extend his visit to Twilight and Morning 123 the United States, where his Methodist friends had no opportunity of listening to one whom they had long held in honour. After his return his case seemed for a time more hopeful ; but, ere long, the disease which had fastened on him was seen to be making further progress. In the November of 1879, he had a slight paralytic stroke, from which he never really recovered. For about a year, though still at Headingley, he was obliged to stand aside and see the work of the college go on without him. His lectures, the result of so much thought and care, were read by his colleagues, and the conviction began to grow upon him that his work was done. But he had loved it so much that it was difficult to be resigned to silence. It was a pathetic sight, on which none could look unmoved, to behold the stricken teacher seated in the porch of his house on Saturday afternoons watching the students, as, with life before them and all its precious opportunities in 124 Samuel Coley their grasp, they went forth to the work to which he would return no more. Some- times he would say in plaintive accents, ' I shall never preach again.' To one of the students he said, as the twilight deepened and he felt his day was spent : ' I thought I should get better, but now I am afraid I shall not. You know I love my work, and it is a great trial to give it up, but I am now resigned.' Then, he added, ' However, it is quite right ; my Father can do no wrong ; and I may say, I never had a deeper realization of what I have preached than now.' We are re- minded by these words of the paraphrase in which the praying mother of J. M. Barrie found such comfort : Art thou afraid His power shall fail When comes the evil day ? And can an all-creating arm Grow weary or decay ? His last public appearance, of any kind, was on the College Commemoration Day, on May 6, 1880. In the afternoon, for the first time for some months, he walked Twilight and Morning 125 down the field where all the resident students were, together with many of the men of former years, and he was greeted with a ringing cheer. He viewed with kindly eye the general joy. At the evening meeting, at which he was unable to be present, many praised the gentle and devoted teacher, while one testified that from him he had received his first religious impressions in City Road Chapel. Thank God, the words of His true servants do not die. Rather do they make of this dim dome of time ' a whispering gallery around which they roll and reverberate for ever/ Kindred souls catch the inspiration, and transmit it onward until the crack of doom. Mr. Coley left Headingley in the August of 1880, to settle at Warwick, where, a few weeks later, he exchanged the toil of the servant for the joy of the Lord. He entered into rest on the morning of October 30, 1880, aged fifty- five years. That eternal blessedness he had long 126 Samuel Coley desired. ' God/ he said, l our own God, possessed, that is Home. Oh, that the day were come when, with the choirs and glorious hierarchies that belt His throne, we were securely at His feet for ever ! ' O joyous day ! For now This champion of the Lord, Through death's short agony, Has gained his sure reward. O happy Brother ! thou Hast found in glory bright, The eternal Father's Son Who led thee on to light. Thou in this vale of tears Didst for His presence sigh ; He with His fullness now Thy soul doth satisfy. Closing "Words Though our task is ended, and the space allotted us exhausted, we cannot refrain from lingering still in fond re- membrance on some of those aspects of this saintly and ministrant life the con- templation of which deepens admiration into reverence. That ' chastity of honour Twilight and Morning 127 which felt a stain like a wound ' ; that uplifting revelation of a soul so full of God that it had no room for sin, and so happy in God that it felt no craving after sin ; that tender consideration for weak- ness and infirmity which breathed continual benedictions ; that touching humility, the outcome of fellowship with God, which made this man unconscious of his own greatness ; those lovely out- goings of kindness and generosity in which it appeared as if he were receiving a favour rather than conferring one ; that delight in service which made him so winsome and so radiant in its exercise, these beautiful qualities contributed to make Samuel Coley an apostle bringing men to Christ, and an evangelist portraying Christ to men. Too soon, as it appeared to us, the voice of the wise and gentle teacher faltered into silence. Too soon death's silent ocean, which ripples at the feet of all of us, withdrew him from our sight. Our chief benefactors are those who attract us 128 Samuel Coley by their sanctity and instruct us by their wisdom, and we desire for them a lengthened twilight which the darkness shall long linger to disturb. But we forget that what appears to us as darkness is for them eternal morning. Men of Samuel Coley's order strengthen our faith in immortality. We are well assured that God will not forsake His own life which He has quickened within them, or deny those ardent desires after the beatific vision which He Himself has inspired. As surely as God lives, the faith in which this man loved and laboured cannot be denied its fruition, or the hope he cherished vanish like a bubble on the wave. Ah no ! He has passed from our rude life to the brotherhood of angels. He has cast aside his encumbering clay to walk with seraphs. He ' rests from his labours, but his works do follow him/ in a life ' re-orient out of dust/ a Life that bears immortal fruit In such great offices as suit The full-grown energies of heaven. THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNI Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST STAMPED BELOW. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 001 033 957