THE

METHODIST MAGAZINE,

FOR DECEMBER, 1814.

BIOGRAPHY.

Some Memoirs of Mr. RICHARD ELLIOTT, Preacher of the Gospel, who departed this life, July 7th, 1813, at Newcastleupon-Tyme, in the forty-fifth year of his age.

AMIDST the great number of biographical writings, with which the present age is favoured, there are but few that merit the name of perfect, or even correct models of this branch of literature. Those written by enemies, are justly disregarded as the productions of malevolence: those compiled from motives of gain, by persons who, for the most part are ignorant of the real characters they attempt to delineate, are calculated only to mislead the simple, and to awaken suspicions in the minds of the intelligent reader: and even those, compiled by the hand of friendship, are not unfrequently blamable; being deficient in historical veracity. The writers of this last species are not, however, to be charged with a design of imposing on the public, otherwise than by complying with the general taste of the present day; which is to canonize all the persons whose characters they draw, by concealing their blemishes, and decorating them with the plumes of spotless perfection. Thus they hold up to public view, virtues that are inimitable, and portraits that never existed in reality.

The biographical writers in the Bibie acted far otherwise. When they sat down to draw person's characters, they knew no man, and they never balanced between the maxims of human prudence, and the sacred demands of truth: regardless of consequences, they painted to the life, and represented men as they were in reality, and not according to fancy, influenced by friendship, or warped by fear. Hence their brightest characters, like the best paintings, have their shades: and these shades, while they prove their lineage from fallen Adam, are nearly absorbed VOL. XXXVII. DECEMBER, 1814. * 5 T *

in the strong blaze of virtue and goodness, which redounds to the honour of redeeming grace. But such is the prevalence of false taste in the present day, that the friends of departed worth would fancy themselves much insulted, were the modern biographists to paint in the style of those venerable men that were formed in the shools of antiquity, and whose works have stood the test of ages, and been the admiration of all discerning persons. These things are mentioned here, that (since the task of drawing up these memoirs devolves on me) should an observation, or an expression, apparently too strong escape from my pen, the reader may take this into the account: that the writer of these sheets became acquainted with the deceased, the first year of his itinerant life; and that few persons knew him better, and none had a higher regard for him, during a friendly intercourse of twenty-three years.

A short account of the deceased, written by himself, was published in the Arminian Magazine for December 1796; which contains an account of his birth, his conversion to God, his cail to the ministry, in the year 1790; and his successive appointments to Nottingham, Huddersfield, Bristol, Bath, and Birmingham, where he closes the narrative, June 21, 1796. From that period to 1804, he laboured in the Stourport, Banwell, Swansea, and Huddersfield circuits; in the last of which places he remained three years, and at the conclusion sat down to business.

For a man divinely called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and whose call is supported by sanctity of manners, by talents above mediocrity, and by numerous seals to his ministry; lightly to reject this heavenly call, and abandon this blessed work, is a line of conduct, which, though on some occasions it may excite our pity, yet cannot fail to meet our censure: and more especially when the want of health cannot be pleaded as an apology for such a procedure. As no person ought to rush into this sacred work uncalled, lest he incur the displeasure of God; so, on the other hand, when there is clear proof that the call is genuine, no buman considerations should induce a man thus called, to leave the work without divine permission. With respect to Mr. Elliott, the fact is, for some time he had been tampering with medicine, and perhaps from the best of motives, that of administering relief to the afflicted. The design is laudable, and may be prac tised to a certain degree by resident ministers; but is incompatible with itinerancy; and, though he might easily plead precedent, yet the good done in this way, by persons not regularly bred to the practice of physic, has been more than overbalanced, by the neglect of improvement in the much more important work of saving sinners. Few men are formed with minds sufficiently capacious to grasp more than one branch of science: Divinity, and Physic, are each of them more than sufficient to employ the