CHAPTER II.

Mr. Bramwell's convictions-His alarming distress of mind-His acts of austerity and mortification-The anguish of his spirit injures his health-He receives the sacrament for the first time-In that ordinance he obtains a sense of God's pardoning love-His great zeal for the honor of God-He associates with the Church singers, and loses much of the consolation which he had felt-He becomes acquainted with a man of piety -After many conflicts, he goes to hear the Methodists, and joins the society.

THE salutary effects of the instruction and example of Mr. Bramwell's parents have been already noticed. During his apprenticeship, his previous convictions were increased in an extraordinary manner. One Sunday evening, while on his return from Elswick, where he had been to visit his parents, their great kindness to him was suddenly and forcibly brought to his recollection. At the same time he began to reflect with the greatest shame and confusion on his numerous acts of disobedience and ingratitude to them. Though he had been a most dutiful child, yet he was so overpowered at the view of the offences which his memory recalled, that he fell down on his knees in the lane, and there cried aloud to God to have mercy upon him, and to pardon his transgressions. As soon as he arrived at his master's house, in Preston, he retired to his room, and rolled himself on the floor in an agony, like a person distracted. These troubles of mind continued for some time, both night and day, without intermission. He

was deeply humbled at the sight of his conduct, and could not be satisfied till he took the earliest opportunity of returning to Elswick, to confess his offences in the presence of his father, and crave his forgiveness. His father, who considered him one of the most dutiful of sons, was surprised and astonished at the power of these convictions, which he could not comprehend. "Dear!" said he, "what hast thou done to lay these heavy charges against thyself? Thou hast not murdered any body." At the same time he told William that so far from being undutiful and ungrateful, he had done nothing which required a parent's forgiveness. With this consoling assurance he returned to Preston greatly relieved in spirit, and formed a strong resolution to change the course of his life. His repentance toward God continued deep and sincere: and he sought every occasion of manifesting it, by frequent acts of fasting, mortification and pray

er.

He also attended the service of the parish church, with the most scrupulous regularity; and showed his genuine zeal for the honor of God, and his hatred to sin, by reproving the latter at all seasons, and in every company.

But while he was the subject of these Divine operations, he stood alone, and had no pious friend to whom he could disclose his feelings, or with whom he could take sweet counsel respecting his soul. Of all the professors of Christianity in the neighborhood, the papists were the strictest; and, to a youthful mind, they appeared to evince some due regard to the exter

nal forms of religion. Though he had been sufficiently well instructed to dislike the principles and general practices of that Church, yet the austerities, penances, and privations, to which its members occasionally subjected themselves, to him seemed highly reasonable; and at that period he had no doubt of such sacrifices being acceptable to God. Laboring under the greatest concern for the salvation of his soul, he adopted several modes of mortifying the flesh, of the most ascetic and severe description, different in some external respects from those of the Roman Catholics, but the same in principle. To remind him of his sins, on account of which he thought he was not sufficiently humbled, he frequently cut off the skin and flesh from the ends of his fingers, and would not for some time suffer the self-inflicted wounds to heal. About midnight he often arose and stole down into the kitchen, while the members of his master's family were asleep; then sprinkling a corner of the floor with some of the roughest sand he could find, and uncover-R ing his knees, he knelt down, and in that painful posture spent many hours of the night in fervent supplications for the pardon of his sins. When the apprentices were allowed a day of relaxation, instead of employing it as they did, in carnal pleasures and worldly amusements, he retired to an obscure part of a wood near Preston, and, having climbed up a favourite tree, he usually remained there till evening, confessing his sins aloud in the presence of his

heavenly Father, and earnestly imploring forgiveness.

While in this disconsolate state of mind, he sometimes wandered from Preston, after the labours of the day: and, walking as far as his father's house in Elswick, a distance of ten miles, he has slowly returned the same night, without partaking of the least refreshment, or informing any of his father's family that an individual so wretched as himself was near their abode. After this solitary walk of twenty miles, he was ready to commence his labor, the next morning, with the earliest of his master's workmen.

His constitution was naturally robust. But had his flesh been brass and his sinews iron, the austerities in which he voluntarily persisted for many months would have ruined his health. Strong as he was, he at last found his frame unequal to the inward conflict which was itself sufficiently severe without the infliction of penitential bodily torture. His friends perceived that his countenance became pale, and that his strength was quickly declining. Being concerned for his welfare, they applied for advice to two physicians, who, unable satisfactorily to account for the emaciated state of his body, called the undefined and hidden cause of his unhappiness," a nervous complaint."

But God, who is rich in mercy, shortly afterward effected for him a great deliverance. He had prepared himself with much prayer and self examination for worthily partaking of the

sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and while in the act of receiving the sacred elements from the hand of the Rev. Mr. Wilson, a pious clergyman at Preston, under whose ministry he had greatly profited, he obtained a clear sense of pardon. All his bodily ailments soon forsook him, and his "spirit rejoiced in God his Saviour." Darkness and gloom, guilt and condemnation, were at once removed in a manner incomprehensible to him, and utterly beyond all that he had ever been taught to expect or desire. The height of his joy was equalled only by the previous depth of his sorrow. He testified in every way his unfeigned gratitude to Him who had made him glad with the light of his countenance. Influenced by this principle, he tried even to purchase the obedience of others to the commands of his loving Saviour. To this purpose he applied all the money allowed him by his parents. If any young people swore in his presence, he affectionately reproved them, and, if they still persisted, he endeavored to buy them off from such profane practices, by giving them a sum of money. By this method he induced many to promise that they would no longer be guilty of their customary language of oaths and imprecations. In the same spirit he often followed depraved individuals into public houses, and dissuaded them from a continuance in their ungodly course of life. He suffered neither rich nor poor, young nor old, to escape reproof, when he perceived any thing in their spirit or conduct that was culpable. In behalf