444

MEMOIR

OF THE LATE

REV. MATTHEW WILKS,

FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY MINISTER OF THE TABERNACLE AND

TOTTENHAM COURT CHAPELS.

THE extraordinary services rendered by the subject of this memoir to the interests of the London Missionary Society, for the lengthened period of thirty-four years, entitle him to special honour in the pages of any work professing to delineate the characters of its early and warmly attached friends. It is only to be regretted that materials for a minute and characteristic biography of this distinguished man are so lamentably scanty; and that, like many other individuals equally tasked in the cause of benevolence, he left but little behind him, among his papers, which could be of real service in elucidating his truly original and eminently devoted character. To the pages of the Evangelical Magazine the public are mainly indebted for all that is now likely to descend to posterity respecting this faithful and laborious servant of the Lord Jesus. In referring then to that periodical, for the substance of this rapid sketch, the Editor has the consolation of knowing, that the documents which he has laid under contribution were supplied by one who intimately knew the deceased, and who did all in his power to collect the outlines of an authentic narrative.

The Rev. Matthew Wilks was born at Gibraltar, on St. Matthew's day, which gave rise to his name, in the year 1746. His father was an officer in the army, and was quartered with his regiment at Gibraltar, at the period of his son's birth. From that station he was soon after removed to Ireland, where the regiment remained for many years. Subsequently to this he retired from the army on half-pay, and settled with his family at Birmingham, where he resided till the period of his death. Only three years before his death, the Rev. Matthew Wilks, in company with one of his sons, and two of his grandchildren,

went to visit his father's grave; on which occasion tears of filial love were seen streaming down his furrowed cheeks. He greatly revered the memory of his father, and taught his children to pronounce his name with affectionate veneration.

Mr. Wilks was distinguished, from his infancy, by an acute intellect, and by a certain sprightliness of mind nearly allied to wit, and certainly identified with genius. When but a lad, he was apprenticed by his father, in the town of Birmingham, to a respectable trade, which he speedily acquired, and in the exercise of which he manifested becoming diligence and integrity. It does not appear, however, that the morning of his days was hallowed by the influence of divine grace. Like others around him, he lived according to the course of this present evil world, and proved that childhood and youth are vanity.

In the year 1771, a new and happy era commenced in his existence. His steps were providentially conducted to the town of West Bromwich, where the Rev. W. Percy (afterwards minister of Queen's-square Chapel, Westminster, and subsequently one of the pastors of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America) was curate of the parish; a decidedly evangelical and faithful preacher of the word. This clergyman was one day, according to custom, preaching in a private room in the neighbourhood of the town, and the subject of this memoir, hearing the sound of his voice, stationed himself, out of mere curiosity, under the window. The word fell with almighty and resistless power upon his spirit; he was pricked to the heart, and began to cry earnestly, "What must I do to be saved?" The change of character immediately produced showed that the work was of God; "old things passed away, behold, all things became new."

It may here be stated, as a somewhat remarkable circumstance, that the ministry of the Rev. W. Percy was also blessed to the conversion of Miss Shenstone (afterwards the wife of the deceased), and of his brother, Mark Wilks, for many years a respectable Baptist minister at Norwich.

Mr. Percy soon discovered a standard of intellect in his young convert, which promised, under favourable auspices, extraor dinary usefulness to the church. He therefore embraced an early opportunity of intimating his desire that Mr. Wilks would devote himself to the duties of the sacred office. At first the proposal was received with hesitation by his young friend; but

after mature deliberation, and repeated entreaties on the part of his beloved minister, he was induced to enter the College belonging to the Countess of Huntingdon, at Trevecca, in Wales.

While a student in that seminary, he made great progress in the study of theology, and acquired habits of preaching very far above mediocrity. During the latter period of his college life, a sermon, delivered by him, was heard by Robert Keen, Esq., one of the executors of Mr. Whitefield, and a manager of the Tabernacle and of Tottenham-court Chapel. As the result of this casual hearing, Mr. W. was invited to preach in London; and in the autumn of 1775 was appointed minister of the Tabernacle connexion. His opening ministry in the metropolis was attended by all the best symptoms of a desirable popularity. The truth preached by him to crowded assemblies, was blessed to the conversion of many, "and the Lord added to the church daily such as were saved."

His respectability and usefulness experienced a considerable accession, at this time, from his union, by marriage, to Miss Shenstone, of Halesowen, in Staffordshire, who was cousin to the poet, William Shenstone, of the Leasowes, and of a very distinguished family. To this lady, whose praise for Christian meekness, good understanding, and humble piety, is in all the churches, he was most tenderly and devotedly attached. She died more than twenty-one years before himself; and though he felt her loss most keenly, for it was sudden, yet he displayed a fortitude which only a strong mind and great principles could have produced. To the Rev. T. Jackson, of Stockwell, who asked him on that occasion, how he was able so well to support himself? He replied, in his own characteristic way, "Do you wish to know? Then hear! My little troubles I think I can bear myself, and often find my strength is weakness; my great troubles I take to God, and he sustains me. Through life, take little and great to him."

Few men, perhaps, have been so useful, in such a variety of ways, as Mr. Wilks. He entered, indeed, on his public labours in a connexion, and at a time, pre-eminently favourable to success; but the result more than equalled the expectations which could reasonably have been formed.

During the whole period of his ministry in Mr. Whitefield's two chapels, the cause of God abundantly prospered under his assiduous care. Among the "affectionate people," as he was

wont to designate them, of these two congregations, he lived and laboured with unabating zeal for more than fifty-three years; during which period, no serious misunderstanding ever took place, nor was any diminution of mutual esteem ever permitted to arise.

The early years of his ministry were distinguished by almost unprecedented labours in the cause of God. Field-preaching was then much practised in the connexion to which he belonged; and, being popular, he engaged repeatedly, both in the metropolis and its vicinity, in that most useful exercise. Nor did he become less an object of interest to his people when the glow and energy of youth had passed away. The solidity, practical tendency, and original complexion of his discourses, added to his well-known integrity and benevolence of character, rendered him, to the very close of a long life, more than ordinarily acceptable as a minister of the word. His general success, as a Christian pastor, may be judged of by the circumstance, that so many useful ministers were called to the knowledge of the truth under his preaching. At one period of his life, there were ten pastors of churches, all of whom attributed their conversion to him as an instrument, and all of whom had been introduced to their spheres of labour by his kind and effective patronage.

His labours in the pulpit and out of it were so incessant, that none but a vigorous constitution could have borne up under the pressure. In preparing for the pulpit, in preaching at home and abroad to crowded auditories, in pastoral calls, in visits to the sick, in attending the committees of Christian and charitable institutions, he showed himself "willing to spend and be spent." In order effectively to meet such repeated and overwhelming claims, he was, by principle and habit, an early riser; thus redeeming time for private study and devotion. For the same reason, also, he practised a most commendable abstinence from all the luxuries of the table, and partook even of plain fare with a rigid observance of order and rule; maintaining, at the same time, a prudent and taciturn habit, which prevented the unne. cessary waste of his animal strength, and never suffered him to degrade himself by becoming the ministerial buffoon of the company. If he ever appeared silent and gloomy, it was only to those who were strangers to his general rules and habits.

His regard for the people of his charge, was only equalled by that generous glow of redeemed hearts, which he experienced in

return. The anxieties of the faithful pastor were reciprocated by the kind attentions, prayers, and sympathies of a devoted people. In his family devotions he was accustomed to pour forth his heart in agony for the welfare of his charge; especially when any of them seemed to be lukewarm and inconsistent in their Christian walk. To the members of his congregation, poor and rich, he was strongly and impartially attached. "Did you ever," said he to Mr. Wilkinson, who had been clerk at the Tabernacle for thirty-four years, and who apologized for asking him to bury some very poor person in a cold winter's day— "did you ever know me ask whether a person was rich or poor, when my duty was to be performed, or good was to be done?"

Long, indeed, will the poor members of the Tabernacle have reason to regret the death of their sincere friend and benefactor. To them he was pre-eminently kind, both by his personal charities, and the influence he exerted with others on their behalf. To him mainly they were indebted for the erection of twelve almshouses for the reception of poor and deserving widows; and also for the establishment of a daily school for clothing and educating one hundred poor children; besides two or three Sunday and catechetical schools, for the religious instruction of the rising generation.

But though his labours in his congregation were so abundant, his ministry was conducted upon principles unrivalled for their disinterestedness. For many years, when he had seven children, his income, as minister of the Tabernacle, did not exceed £100 per annum; and though it might have been considerably augmented, had he been disposed to encourage the measure, it never amounted to more than £200-one half of which sum was regularly expended in Christian charities, or on the poor. But though he was thus careless as it respected his own income, he stipulated for a more liberal provision for his colleagues, and obtained on their behalf an increase of salary, and a decent competence for their families after their decease.

His last colleague was the Rev. John Hyatt, whom he regarded with a love such as Paul cherished to his son Timothy. For the comfort and honour of that distinguished minister of Christ he was ardently solicitous, and never ceased to lament his removal till the hour of his death. Of his happy fellowship with Mr. H. he has written in the following terms:-"To me he was, indeed, a brother beloved; and I can add, that during a period of more