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EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE,

AND

MISSIONARY CHRONICLE.

FOR SEPTEMBER, 1847.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. WILLIAM WARD,
Of Stowmarket.

THE high esteem in which the Rev. William Ward was held by a large circle of judicious friends, will cause a feeling of regret that more ample records have not been preserved of the life of such a man. Although his peculiar habits and avocations kept him, perhaps, in too retired a sphere, it is presumed that a brief sketch of his life and character will be received with pleasure by all who knew his worth.

The Rev. William Ward was born on the 2nd July, 1772, at Arnsby, in Leicestershire, the birth-place of his friend, the great Robert Hall. He was the child of pious parents, (themselves descended from pious Nonconformist ancestors,) and was remarkable for an early taste for reading, which was chiefly attributable to the careful tuition of his excellent mother. His parents removed to Wigston Magna, shortly after his birth; his early years were therefore spent in that village. It was an earnest desire of his mother that he should be devoted to the work of the Christian ministry. He left his father's house on the 1st May, 1786, and went to the academy at Rothwell, Northamptonshire; where he prosecuted his studies for three years, under the guidance of the Rev. Moses Gregson. At the age of seventeen, he removed to Homerton College, where he remained

VOL. XXV.

nearly four years. On the 5th November, 1790, he was admitted to Christian fellowship with the church at Fetterlane, London, at that time under the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. Davis. Mr. Ward preached the first time in public at Fetter-lane, on the 30th September, 1792. His text was chosen from 2 Cor. v. 15, "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."

The period spent by Mr. Ward at Homerton was the great turning-point in his life. Then, his mind being expanded by an extensive course of reading; with that noble independence of character which always marked his course, he conceived and laid down plans of study and of action, the prosecution of which, in after life, raised him to an eminence in solid acquirements, which is seldom attained.

He left Homerton in 1793, preached for a short period at Newport, Essex, and afterwards at Tavistock and Kingsbridge, Devonshire. In the month of September of the following year he removed to Uppingham, in Rutland; and, having been chosen to the pastoral office, he resided there several years. His heart was cheered by witnessing, during his abode at Uppingham, and by intelligence re

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ceived from time to time in subsequent years, that God was pleased to render his labours at that place successful in the salvation of many souls.

He was requested, about the year 1800, by the trustees of Wymondley College," to undertake the office of classical tutor. This invitation he accepted; and, for a period of four years, he sustained that office with ability and success. His coadjutor as theological tutor was the Rev. William Parry. His weight of character and sound scholarship pre-eminently fitted Mr. Ward for this position; and there are ministers of the gospel now - living who can bear willing and ample testimony to the wisdom, prudence, and talent which he displayed at Wymondley.

In consequence of some unpleasant differences between Mr. Ward and the trustees, in which concessions were required which the former conceived he could not make without a sacrifice of principle, he determined to resign his office, and, under the direction of Providence, to seek some other sphere of labour. Under that direction his footsteps were guided to Stowmarket, Suffolk. Thither he went in December, 1804-and there he lived and laboured during the remainder of his life.

With that sagacity for which he was always remarkable, he perceived, that although to many minds this little town at that period presented few attractions to induce the settlement of a minister, and the church was at a low ebb, still the central situation of Stowmarket, and its rising commercial importance, rendered it an inviting sphere to a minister whose paramount desire was to be useful in his Master's service.

With steady perseverance and quiet energy, "through evil report and through good report," he prosecuted the various duties of the Christian ministry during a period of forty-one years, and under his ministry the congregation gradually advanced in strength and usefulness, until it exercised an important influence on the surrounding neighbourhood, and

reached a respectable standing in the county.

Mr. Ward was united in marriage, in the year 1810, to the widow of John Byles, Esq., merchant, of Stowmarket, a gentleman highly respected. Of Mrs. Ward it is enough to say, that there was in her so happy a combination of piety, amiableness, good sense, cheerfulness, and uniform sweetness of disposition, as rendered her a worthy companion of her excellent and gifted husband, and an object of great esteem and affection to all who had the privilege of her acquaint

ance.

The death of his beloved partner, in 1835, was a severe trial to Mr. Ward. He suffered great mental distress, and often said that he could adopt the language of John Newton, when he had passed through a similar scene, and say, "that he could thank God for the trials, but he would not pass through the same again for all the wealth of the Indies."

Mr. Ward's high standing for soundness of judgment and extensive learning naturally led to his being frequently engaged in important public services in various parts of Suffolk. His counsel and advice were always received with great respect, and were highly valued by his brethren in the ministry.

The even tenour of a Christian minister's life in a country town furnishes but few points of interest to the readers of biography. It was a favourite maxim of Mr. Ward, “as unknown, and yet well known." Another often quoted rule of conduct was, "Do all the good you can, while you can, and with as little noise as possible." As the biographer of Dr. Dwight has well remarked, "Mankind are attracted rather by what is brilliant in character, and daring in action, than by the less splendid achievements of learning and piety. The exploits of the hero are recounted with applause while he is living, and after his death are enrolled with admiration on the records of nations; but the minister of Christ must usually wait to receive his honours in eternity, and expect the due estimate of

EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE,

AND

MISSIONARY CHRONICLE.

FOR SEPTEMBER, 1847.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. WILLIAM WARD,
Of Stowmarket.

THE high esteem in which the Rev. William Ward was held by a large circle of judicious friends, will cause a feeling of regret that more ample records have not been preserved of the life of such a man. Although his peculiar habits and avocations kept him, perhaps, in too retired a sphere, it is presumed that a brief sketch of his life and character will be received with pleasure by all who knew his worth.

The Rev. William Ward was born on the 2nd July, 1772, at Arnsby, in Leicestershire, the birth-place of his friend, the great Robert Hall. He was the child of pious parents, (themselves descended from pious Nonconformist ancestors,) and was remarkable for an early taste for reading, which was chiefly attributable to the careful tuition of his excellent mother. His parents removed to Wigston Magna, shortly after his birth; his early years were therefore spent in that village. It was an earnest desire of his mother that he should be devoted to the work of the Christian ministry. He left his father's house on the 1st May, 1786, and went to the academy at Rothwell, Northamptonshire; where he prosecuted his studies for three years, under the guidance of the Rev. Moses Gregson. At the age of seventeen, he removed to Homerton College, where he remained

VOL. XXV.

nearly four years. On the 5th November, 1790, he was admitted to Christian fellowship with the church at Fetterlane, London, at that time under the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. Davis. Mr. Ward preached the first time in public at Fetter-lane, on the 30th September, 1792. His text was chosen from 2 Cor. v. 15, "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."

The period spent by Mr. Ward at Homerton was the great turning-point in his life. Then, his mind being expanded by an extensive course of reading; with that noble independence of character which always marked his course, he conceived and laid down plans of study and of action, the prosecution of which, in after life, raised him to an eminence in solid acquirements, which is seldom attained.

He left Homerton in 1793, preached for a short period at Newport, Essex, and afterwards at Tavistock and Kingsbridge, Devonshire. In the month of September of the following year he removed to Uppingham, in Rutland; and, having been chosen to the pastoral office, he resided there several years. His heart was cheered by witnessing, during his abode at Uppingham, and by intelligence re

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of his last sufferings, not one painful or distressing thought was uttered in reference to his eternal prospects. His soul was fixed, stayed upon the Rock of ages. As long as he retained the power of speech, he manifested the most intense feeling in reference to the cause of Christ. It was evidently dear to him as his own soul.

"Two days before he died, he asked a friend to read that beautiful hymn of Dr. Watts:

Blest be the everlasting God,
The Father of our Lord.'

"He dwelt with peculiar pleasure on the third and fourth verses:

"What though our inbred sins require Our flesh to see the dust,

Yet as the Lord our Saviour rose,
So all his followers must.

There's an inheritance Divine Reserved against that day, 'Tis uncorrupted, undefiled,

And cannot fade away.'

"One of the most pleasing and prominent traits in the character of our departed relative, was his disinterested and deep sympathy with his family and friends in all their sorrows and joys. This he exhibited to the last, affectionately commending all his children and grandchildren to the care and guidance of the Great Shepherd of Israel.

"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.""

Mr. Ward departed this life January the 2nd, 1816, and on the 11th his funeral sermon, from Hebrews xiii. 7, 8, was preached, by Mr. Craig, of Bocking, to a numerous and deeply-affected audience.

The respect shown at the time of the funeral was great. All the principal shops were closed. The respectable inhabitants of all shades of opinion attended.

He is succeeded in the pastorate by the Rev. W. P. Lyon; whom may God bless, as he blessed his predecessor.

To the foregoing sketch of Mr. Ward's life, by his esteemed son-in-law, the fol

lowing general observations on his character, written in compliance with an earnest request, are added by one who first became acquainted with him in the maturity of his powers, and at the meridian of his day of usefulness, and who continued to enjoy his friendship, and to have occasional intercourse with him to the latest period of his ministry.

To prevent repetition, and secure brevity, it seems desirable to consider, separately, the principal features of his character, beginning with that which was the true source of all the good of which he was the instrument.

His piety. This was sincere, deep, and steady; never breaking out into flames of fervour, but burning with a clear and serene light to the end. His experience in religion seemed chiefly based on profound views of the character of God, especially on those aspects of it, both awful and delightful, in which it is exhibited in the person and work of Christ. Considered as experimental, his religion bore a remarkable resemblance to that of President Edwards, of whose writings and character he was a warm admirer.

Though himself living under a deep impression of religion, he was reserved as to his own feelings, and so there was not much in his conversation to invite others to disclose theirs. He seemed shy of using the phraseology current among devout persons, which, indeed, is sometimes abused as a screen for hypocrisy, but which also, undoubtedly, often proceeds from the "unfeigned lips" of multitudes of upright souls.

Yet his piety was clearly visible in the integrity of his life, in his single-minded devotedness to his great work, in his reverential manner of referring to the great topics of religion, in the tear that trembled in his eye at the recital of the doing or the dying of eminent Christians; and, above all, it was heard and felt in the deeply solemn tone and lowly spirit in which he approached the Majesty on high, through his Son, Jesus Christ.

A remarkable feature of his religious

character was his veneration for true piety, wherever found, even in the humblest individuals. In this he strongly resembled the really illustrious Robert Hall, in the sketches of whose character it is to be regretted that this striking trait has been almost entirely overlooked.

His mental constitution. His mind was distinguished by that perspicuity which sees, at a glance, the substance of things. Hence, he quickly extracted from any book all that was worth extracting. On which account, in the later years of his life, he did not spend long hours in study, but read at snatches, intermingling his reading, even in the morning, with walks, conversation, and friendly calls.

His mind delighted in the intelligible, the proved, the certain, among the objects of knowledge; and in the practicable and really beneficial, among the things of action. As he had no satisfaction but in what was clear and definite, so whatever truth he distinctly perceived he strongly embraced, and held with proportionable tenacity. His opinions on all great subjects being fixed, from a powerful conviction of the understanding, no after representations availed to shake them. It is true that he had strong prepossessions and some prejudices; but as his views were generally the result of reading, reflection, and inquiry, they were for the most part such as have been usually entertained by wise and good men, who have had similar opportunities of forming their opinions, together with a like freedom both of thinking and of expressing their thoughts. His tenacious grasp of what he had once adopted the writer remembers to have seen very strikingly exhibited in a sharp intellectual contest on an ecclesiastical question, which took place between him and the late William Youngman, of Norwich-a man strong, like himself, both in perception and retention. The utterances of their kindled and glowing minds were like flashes of lightning, passing and repassing; so that the large company present sat in a kind of breathless silence

while the disputants were darting at each other those replies and rejoinders which were to end, as most such contests end, in each party being only the more firmly riveted in his previous opinions; yet, in this instance,-which is far from being commonly the case,-without any diminution of their Christian benevolence towards each other.

As is usual with that order of minds of which Mr. Ward was a specimen, the imaginative faculty was feeble. This was very perceptible in his conversation, but still more in his public exercises; and in his strong distaste of fervid and impassioned eloquence, of splendid diction, and of all that is sought to be attained by a cultivated oratory, with which his mental constitution allowed of no sympathy, unless in almost the smallest degree.

His acquirements. These were considerable; far above mediocrity, yet not first-rate. That his classical attainments were superior, is evident; not so much from his having been called to fill the office of classical tutor at Wymondley, as from his having sustained that office with an honourable ability to which his pupils delighted to bear witness in after years.

But his forte lay in the department of general knowledge. Here he shone; and here, probably, he excelled all men in the community to which he belonged. Other ministers, and some laymen of accomplished minds, were more thoroughly versed in some branch of knowledge, but not one, perhaps, among them all, possessed so comprehensive a view of that whole wide circle which the cultivated intellect delights to embrace. Of him it might emphatically be said, that "knowledge," considered in its largest sense, was "pleasant to his soul." And of that in which he delighted he gathered great store; in doing which, the bee might be said to be his model, for he truly gathered honey "from every flower." Accordingly, he was far from confining himself to books, but seemed ever on the watch for fresh contributions, levying

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