LETTER LXXVIII. To Mrs. Reay. "Manchester, July 16, 1818. "MY DEAR SISTER,-Your frequent indisposition may have appeared mysterious, both to you and to your dear husband, as many of God's works do to us in our present state of existence; and yet we may with the utmost confidence pronounce his doings in infinite wisdom. It will be to your utmost satisfaction to continue in this view and feeling of his proceedings. I more than ever wonder at his working; but can follow every wheel with a shout of Glory!' Well might the morning stars sing together, and all the sons of God shout for joy! He has done all things well. Your salvation from indwelling evil, I hope, is complete,-your receiving the witness of the all-cleansing blood,-your being made perfect in love,—your dwelling in God and God in you. Then there is no torment, no dread of death, eternity, judgment, &c. This view makes all calm, and fills the soul with divine consolation. It is heaven, already heaven! Happy, happy spirit! thy guilt is removed and the soul is filled with God. Every thing within, without, around, above, beneath, increases the smile. What is pain? All is God, and God is all. "I should be exceedingly glad to see you before your flight; for it may be suddenly. Your poor flesh can only bear a little, very little; but I suppose you have no objection. Well, the will of God be done! Remember where you are going. I cannot think of it without desire, without joy. O the numbers that are waiting for us! Will not the next meeting swallow up all sorrow of parting? Yea, for ever, for ever. Look up, you will shortly be crowned with immortality, with eternal life. Yet I am confident that we cannot detach any place from God's presence, from the whole. If so, his glory is here, at Carville, the same as in heaven. MR. W. BRAMWELL. And we may live in that glory here. 227 Faith brings it in, and increases it even so much that we feel changed into it more and more. I now live in this glory more than ever, and am waiting to meet you, to receive my glorious body, that we may see face to face what we all now are only able to see by faith. The change will astonish us, will astonish all the saints in glory. We ought to do nothing in this world, but as a help to this glory; and if we esteem any thing, merely to serve the body, to the injury of the soul, we thereby prove that we prefer the body to the soul. The Lord be with you in affliction, in health, (if permitted,) in life and in death. Amen, and Amen! "I am your affectionate friend and brother, CHAPTER XV. Mr. Bramwell's arrival at Leeds-His attendance on the business of conference-His conversation, preaching, and the circumstances of his death-His funeral. THE writer of this memoir is indebted to a friend for the following account of Mr. Bramwell's short residence in Leeds, a subject the recollection of which will long excite the most powerful sympathies in the minds of those who were concerned in the affecting closing scene. "Mr. Bramwell's last journey commenced on the twenty-eighth day of July, in the year 1818. On the morning of that day, he took a place in the Manchester coach, and proceeded to the house of his affectionate friend, Mr. Sigston, of Queen-Square, Leeds, his usual place of abode whenever his duty called him to sojourn in that town, or to pass through it. His host and hostess possessed views and feelings congenial to his own, being warm admirers of his piety, and imitators of that zeal and devotedness for which he was greatly distinguished. In their society he always appeared to be at home; and those happy, edifying interviews which many religious friends enjoyed with him in Mr. Sigston's house, will never be erased from their recollection. "It was on the evening of the same day, that he arrived at this favourite abode. He came there for the purpose of attending on his duties in conference, which was held that year at Leeds. The series of letters presented to the reader, will have evinced the solicitude which, as a Methodist minister, he uniformly felt for the affairs of the connexion. The financial embarrassments under which the body had been labouring for some years, were lamented by him, because he thought they might in a great measure have been avoided; and they were a farther subject of grief to him, on account of their being real hinderances to the planting of the gospel in other places. Economy in expenditure, and less of worldly show and costly ornament in our places of public worship, were at once the preventives and the cures which he prescribed for this malady. But his great concern was not about outward things: he thought much and deeply about the inward declension which he feared was too perceptible in the modern race of Methodists. He longed to see the restoration of all that ancient simplicity, that genuine attachment to the Redeemer, and that unaffected charity for all men, which were the characteristics of the early professors. These circumstances, connected with the temporal and spiritual prosperity of Methodism, compelled him to a close attendance during the sittings of conference, that he might hear every thing which was suggested for the mitigation of existing evils, and that he might contribute his portion of advice, which he always gave with modesty and firmness. "In the intervals between each of the sittings, he enjoyed himself at his friend's house in conversation that was at once exhilarating and profitable. At such moments he shone as the enlightened minister and the pleasing companion. His presence communicated both delight and edification; and it is the declaration of his host, that if Mr. Bramwell had previously received a sure intimation that his earthly existence would terminate so soon and suddenly as it has done, he could not have conducted himself with more of that dignified propriety, and innocent cheerfulness, which become a minister of grace, and an heir of heaven. Indeed, this had always been his character, when in former times he had passed many happy days at Mr. Sigston's house: but it was the more remarkable at this period, for his conversation was eminently in heaven, from whence he was looking for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.' All his sayings appeared to possess a divine power. Such a mature strength of zeal, tempered with Christian affability and gentleness, has seldom been witnessed. He was 'filled with the Spirit;' and exhibited to the view of all around him a heavenly specimen of a finished character. One of his brethren, who sat near him during the whole conference, the business of which was often of a very trying description, has said that Mr. Bramwell appeared constantly to act and live under a lively conviction of these words, 'Thou, God, seest me!' "One afternoon during the conference, he took tea with his old friend Mr. Baiston, in company with several other preachers. In the course of conversation, it was observed how difficult it was to station those preachers who had large families. Mr. Bramwell said with much solemnity, I think some of us ought to pray that God would be pleased soon to grant us a station in heaven!' "A few days before he died, clasping his hands together, and lifting his eyes up to heaven, he said, the blessed, blessed state of that man of God, Mr. Blagborne, when he was about to depart! I saw him in London a short time prior to his death, when he exclaimed with great joy, Glory, glory be to God, who has made me fully ready for my change!' "A friend calling upon him one day, inquired where his station for the following year was fixed. Mr. Bramwell replied,' My brethren have appointed me to return to Salford. But I tell them they will never have ano ther opportunity to give me an earthly station; for it is my intention to be in heaven before next conference. I am hastening to that better country as rapidly as I am able.' "On another occasion, an intimate friend meeting with him in the yard of the old chapel, walked with him, and complimented him on his being chosen chairman of the Manchester district; adding with an air of pleasantry, that he hoped his elevation would not turn his head. Mr. Bramwell smiled, and, without seeming to have heard a syllable of what had been uttered, fixed his eyes upon his friend, and said in a very emphatic tone of voice, 'O brother, live to God!' Immediately afterwards, his attention was called off by some other friends. This one object he had perpetually in sight, to exhort every one with whom he conversed, to prepare for the complete enjoyment of the inheritance of the saints in light. He could assure all his friends from his own experience, that nothing was so delightful as to live under a constant sense of God's presence, and to do all things with a regard to his glory. "During his stay in Leeds, he preached a few times in the neighbouring villages. On Sunday evening, August the 2d, he was at Woodhouse, and delivered an affecting discourse from Phil. i, 8-10, For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment: that you may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence, till the day of Christ.' Little did his friends and the congregation suppose, when they heard his animated exhortation for the 'abounding of their love in knowledge and judgment,' that it would be the last time of their being favoured with his faithful admonitions. He dilated much on the day of Christ,' and cried out with a fervency peculiar to himself, My heart's desire and prayer to God is that I may meet all my Yorkshire friends in glory!' He most affectionately entreated |