MEMOIR OF THE REV. WILLIAM BAGGALY.

As the subject of the following memoir was well known to be distinguished for his painstaking industry in collecting and storing up materials for his sketches of our early ministry, we accepted the duty of preparing a brief account of his life and labours, under the impression that we should find ample material for our purpose amongst his papers. We regret that this impression has not been verified, and find it hard to believe that a minister who had such a passion for details, and who packed his biographical sketches so full of them, has left nothing of the nature of an autobiography, journal, or notes of his own life. Possibly, there may be some papers in existence which answer to one of these descriptions, but if so, they have not been discovered by his friends; and scarcely any of the numerous letters which he wrote to Connexional friends, or received from them, have come into our hands. We regret this very much, as from the position which Mr. Baggaly occupied in our ministry for nearly forty years, his numerous friends throughout the Connexion will expect a fuller account of his life and labours than we can furnish. We cannot attempt to do more than present a miniature portrait, or what some may be disposed to regard as a dim outline of Mr. Baggaly; yet we hope that those who knew him most intimately will see it to be his likeness, and not another's, and pronounce it to be in the main a faithful, though imperfect, representation of him as a man, a christian, and a minister.

The Rev. William Baggaly was born in the busy practical town of Sheffield, on December 18, 1808. He was the second child and eldest son (the first-born died in infancy) of John and Johannah Baggaly, who were subsequently blessed with another son and three daughters. Of the father we know nothing, except that he was in the scissor trade, and died in the year 1816 or 1817, when William was but a lad. Of his mother we know more, as Mr. Baggaly himself wrote a few notes about her, and made some extracts from her letters, which have fortunately reached us. She was "intelligent, affectionate, and pious;" evidently a superior woman in herself, and who had enjoyed social advantages above the common order. After the birth of William, it seems that she became the subject of delicate health, and sought such improvement as change of air and residence in the country might give. While there, nursing her child, she piously dedicated him to the Lord-a purpose accepted of God, and, as we shall see, in due time fulfilled. Like Mary of old, Mrs.

Baggaly "hid these things in her heart," all through the infancy and youth of William, and they doubtless moulded and regulated her conduct towards him, and worked their way by God's blessing to their own fulfilment.

The death of Mr. Baggaly, senior, when William was only eight years of age, would no doubt have a solemnising influence upon him. It would start inquiries in his mind as to the meaning of death and life, would bring him into still closer companionship with his mother, and concentrate upon him all the religious influence she possessed. His parents attended our Scotland-street Chapel, in Sheffield, and he attended with them. He was nurtured on the lap of piety. His education, dating back from the earliest period at which the simplest truths could be felt or apprehended, was strictly religious and prepared him for an early conversion. In the meanwhile his secular education was not neglected. He was placed under Mr. Lindley, at Bridge House Academy, and in due time became a good scholar. A relic of his cleverness as a caligraphist is still preserved, which was executed in five or six styles of penmanship by him, when only twelve years of age. It is a wonderful production for so young a boy, and is important as an evidence of how assiduously he was then prosecuting his educational work.

His religious life may be said to have begun when he was fourteen or fifteen years of age,-not at first, perhaps, in any decided form, still in such form as to give hope of a not distant conversion and consecration to the Lord. This must have taken place soon after, for we find that he was recognised as a member of the Scotland-street Society, when he was but sixteen years of age, and began about the same time to teach in the Sunday-school. Conversion in his case evidently meant the consecration of all his powers and life to Christ; for soon after his conversion he became a local preacher, and laboured with much acceptance in that capacity for about two years. During this period he prosecuted the work of self-culture with great diligence and a gratifying measure of success. His thirst for knowledge, naturally strong, and his desire to devote his life to the work of the ministry, stimulated him to study, that he might be prepared to enter upon the sacred office, fully equipped for its various duties. The influence of his mother's piety and prayers, and the sage counsels and paternal sympathy of the Rev. James Wilson, who was then stationed in Sheffield, contributed largely to the development of William's Christian life and character, and more than anything else, by God's blessing, turned his thoughts and desires towards the work of the ministry.

To the ministry, as we have already seen, he was consecrated from his birth. When approaching manhood, and perhaps anticipating the ministry as his future work, his mother told him the secret thoughts of her heart concerning himself,-how, that while still an infant, as she sat nursing him one evening amidst the stillness of the green fields-but her own words are the best description of this: "I had you then asleep on my lap. My heart was troubled, and looking up through my falling tears, I sought the blessing of God upon us both." "Prayer," writes her son, "was answered, and her mind was comforted." "And then," she said, "I gave you specially to the Lord, and besought Him to make you a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." We can easily conceive that a communication of this kind, from such a mother, would greatly strengthen his desire to enter the ministry, and constrain him to come to an early decision in relation thereto. "At length," says Mr. Baggaly, "it pleased God to put into my heart a desire to serve Him in the Gospel of His Son, and my way was opened into the ministry."

He commenced his ministerial labours as a supply at Keighley, some time after the Conference of 1827, and by the Conference, which was held at Longton, in 1828, he was received as a probationer, and appointed to Dudley, under the superintendency of the Rev. J. Harrison.

These are bare facts, barely stated; but they meant a great deal to Mrs. Baggaly and her son-meant more than can be well expressed. As for the mother, though she had given her son to the Lord, when but an infant, yet now that the trials and privations of the itinerancy were in a measure realised, she felt it hard to give him up to it. Mr. Baggaly himself thus represents the struggle: "The anxious yearnings of a mother's heart were so far realised, in my acceptance by the Conference as a probationer, but not her prayerful and ardent solicitude on my account. It cost her a struggle to give me up, but her vows were remembered, and she could not go back. I was given up, and went forth to preach the Gospel, accompanied by the affectionate counsels and prayerful influences of a pious mother, for which I never can be sufficiently thankful." As for the son, he evidently went forward with fear, and soon discovered that the ministry was no sinecure, but a sphere made thorny by difficulties, and all-important by heavy respor sibilities. He says: "Providence led me to Dudley. There my humble labours commenced, and with them duties, anxieties, and responsibilities I had never known before. Then my pious and intelligent mother's influence, whether for caution, counsel, or encouragement was found to be invaluable." A pious mother's

influence was always with him,-not only in the form of a sweet, healthful atmosphere, which strengthened him as he breathed itbut also in the form of a guardian angel, uttering kindly warnings and giving wise and loving advice.

So much is evident from a few extracts of letters from her which he lovingly preserved-samples, no doubt, of a large number which he received. At one time she writes: "I need not tell you that my first and last wish in the day is that the Lord may bless you and prosper the work you are engaged in. I often think there are ministering spirits that have urged you on in this good work." No doubt at all about that, both visible and invisible, herself among the most precious of them all. And then she would justify her counsels by pithy extracts from some gifted author, the whole being well calculated to discipline the raw ministerial recruit into an efficient and valiant soldier of the cross. At another time, when the kindest things were not spoken or done to him by some of the friends in his circuit, she writes: "The noblest revenge you can take on them that treat you so unworthily, must be forgetfulness. The sparks of calumny will soon become extinct of themselves if we do not blow them. You are but a young disciple,

but I pray that you may be valiant for the truth. The enemy is throwing his fiery darts at you, telling you that you will never enjoy domestic comforts from home, and that your pleasures are insipid and pass as the wind. Tell him he is a liar, that a Christian's home is with his God, that He is omnipotent, that He can make hard things easy and rough places plain, and that you are resolved to maintain the station you are in, in honour of your Maker and Friend." Like a young captain, troubled with adverse winds and cross currents, he was often perplexed and troubled by the conduct of foolish, wayward, and unreasonable men, and he opened his mind on these matters to his mother, who thus counsels him: "I hope in a little time you will be more comfortable and settled in your mind. You are serving a great and good Master, and I feel assured that He will make a plain path for you to walk in. Only be faithful to the grace given. Look around, my dear child, and weigh character well, before you commit yourself to any who court your society. Your conversation should be such that youth may find therein improvement, woman modesty, the aged respect, and all men civility. To those you find full of questions on worldly affairs, it is better to make no answer at all. You are only a learner in these things, and have much more to learn. Labour more to be a good than a great preacher." Privileged above many of his brethren is the young minister whose mother can write him such letters as the above extracts are taken from.

Counsel of a similar kind, but fuller and more comprehensive in its range, was from time to time addressed to him by his constant and attached friend, the Rev. J. Wilson. Mr. Wilson while stationed in Sheffield, 1826-7, established a theological class for the benefit of young men who were desirous of qualifying themselves for efficient service as teachers in the Sunday-school, or as preachers of the Gospel. Messrs. Bradshaw, Baggaly, Hallatt, Innocent, and Ridge were members of the class, and greatly profited by the wise and fatherly counsels of their tutor. For Mr. Baggaly he appears to have conceived a paternal affection, and after he had left home and entered upon the work of the ministry, he frequently wrote to him, and furnished him with such counsel and encouragement as all young ministers need. Mr. Baggaly has preserved as precious treasures a few of these letters. They are brimful of sanctified wisdom, and redolent of the spirit of an elevated piety. The following passages will sustain our description of them, and show with what deep interest he watched the career of his young friend. Much of the advice addressed to Mr. Baggaly fifty-two years ago is specially appropriate for young ministers in our own day. About six months after he had entered on his probation, Mr. Wilson thus wrote to him: "Personal religion is the first and greatest of your cares. Be sure to increase in this. Often examine yourself upon the great points of personal faith in the crucified Saviour, and the corresponding fruits of love, purity, humility, patience, meekness, &c. Get a deep and correct knowledge of yourself, of your most distinguishing failings and infirmities, such as pride or ambition, passion or slothfulness, levity or talkativeness, &c. You must walk with religious circumspection before the Church and the world, that the Church-especially the young-may take no harm, but rather be made better by imitating you, and that the world may stand reproved before you. In company, countenance no loose, frothy, empty talk; and, by the bye, do not indulge much in company; remember the importance of your calling does not admit of it." Two years later he thus writes to him: "Live near to God; be watchful over yourself in all things. Let the duties of the sacred work in which you are engaged engross all your care and attention. Late and early seek after all that kind of knowledge necessary to make you respectabie and useful as a preacher of Christ's Gospel. Live much in retirement. This is the proper period of your life in which to lay in a stock of all useful materials; neglect this period, and all will be lost; employ it well, and all will be gained. But it cannot be properly improved without almost constant retirement for reading, study, and devotion. Your visiting should be principally to the poor and the sick of your congregations