on which Mr. William Stephenson died (in 1876), full of years': a man who, for plain dealing, promptness, simplicity and manliness, would have been after Wesley's own heart. William Stephenson, the son of William, was born at Myer's Close, near North Shields, November 14th, 1801. He was the eldest of three sons, all men of goodly presence, stalwart, tall, well-knit, lithe, active, soldierly, erect Northumbrians. At an early age he was sent to school at Barnard Castle. When he was about fourteen his father removed from Shields to Rudchester. One of the first acts of the father had a marked influence on the son. Shields was a Methodist centre. The miners and the sailors were largely leavened with Methodist teaching. At Shields, Methodism had numbers, activity and favour amongst the people. At Rudchester, a small, quiet, out-of-the-way village, there was no Methodism. The change of surroundings was such as annually quenches the zeal of hundreds, who remove where there is no Methodism, or the chapel is poor, or a church is nearer, and who feebly succumb to circumstances, their principles withering like some rudely transplanted exotic. Finding no 'cause' at Rudchester, the Stephensons made one. Their house was opened for worship and put on the Plan, and a Church formed in the house. Their consistent fidelity had its reward in many ways. For the scattered Methodists, Love-feasts were great occasions. Zeal provoked persecution, and faith wrought deliverance. Their religion both brought them into and out of difficulties. They were rallying points to which the troubled went for comfort, and those whose hearts burned within them hastened to tell what things were done in the way.' Young William Stephenson, partly by use and wont' and partly by an unconfessed need, was drawn to a Love-feast, held near his birthplace, in the village of Wallsend. Hospitality was necessary when people came so far. Hospitality taught the people to know each other better. It helped the work of God. John Reay kept open house. Another guest, who had come from the high Durham moorlands, Miss Ward, of Edmondbyers, is still a well-remembered name in the Derwent and Tyne valleys. Her religious zeal, the memory of which is fragrant after half a century of change, was of no common order. Her parents were members of the earliest Society at Edmondbyers, formed in 1804; their house was the Preacher's home; for years the customary services were held there. Her mother died, and her father's religion declined and his membership lapsed. One night, early in 1823, in con versation with his two daughters, he described his own conversion to God, and dwelt on the hallowed joy which had filled his heart when his sins were forgiven. The daughters listened eagerly. Mary, the younger, on retiring to rest, fearing her father no longer held his former confidence and joy, pleaded with God for him. Conviction came to her own soul. A struggle of six weeks ended in triumphant faith. Her elder sister Elizabeth sought and found Christ. Their father was restored. Miss Ward then entered on a course of unusual zeal and activity. The work of Methodism had a new beginning. Mounted on her horse she rode for miles, eager to embrace every occasion of gaining or communicating spiritual good. Thus she went to Wallsend. William Stephenson, after several interviews, resolved to make her, if possible, his wife. He rode to Edmondbyers, where he saw her father, and plainly announced his intention. The manly, frank, earnest youth was not an unwelcome guest. He pleaded his case. He met with candour and directness equal to his own. With Elizabeth Ward, God's word was supreme. Her answer was: "I esteem you very much, but unless you first give your heart to God, I could never marry you.' Rejected, he rode thoughtfully back. Rejected on just, Scriptural grounds. The cause was removable. Honestly, deliberately, he made his choice. It was not an expedient to gain an end. He made his choice for life. Till Ideath he was the Lord's. He renewed his appeal, and was engaged to Elizabeth Ward. Her firmness in a critical halfhour brought half a century of blessing. In 1823 William Stephenson left his father's house for the Throckley South Farm. There was no farm-house. A cottage on the hill-side served as a temporary home. An upper room was at once made a Methodist preaching-place. There had been no Methodist service here; so, following his father's example on removing to Rudchester, he began one in his house. For five-and-twenty years it was the home of the little Church he founded. He soon began the erection of Throckley House, with its extensive farm-buildings and dwellings for the hands. In two years it was completed, and he was married. His succeeding years were years of industry. Prosperity was its steadily increasing fruit. Farm was added to farm. The treasures of clay and coal beneath the surface were opened. Fire-brick factories sprang up. A demand for labour was created. The quiet valley slope was changed into the thriving township. God's service always kept pace with these efforts. A Class was soon formed. Mr. Stephenson and his wife led it jointly, the one speaking to the men, the other to the women. In 1851 the old preaching-room gave way to a neat chapel built at his cost. a His wife died in 1862. A suitable memorial of her practical piety was reared by her husband and sons, in the handsome stone church, with its spire and bell. For ten years Mr. Stephenson was widower. In 1872 he married the widow of Mr. Barnard Smith, of Thorpe-le-Vale, near Market Rasen, with whom he lived most happily till his death; who with shrewdness, tact and energy, exerted herself amongst the people, and with exemplary loving care ministered to him in his sickness and death. In the autumn of 1875 his health began to fail. The man who a few years before could have vaulted a gate, began to tremble and tire in his walk. With failing strength of body there was a ripening of soul. His surviving children gathered round him. His religious hope was firm, strong and joyous. Reclining on the 'Rock of Ages,' he entered into rest, April 6th, 1876. Two days after, he was buried in Newburn churchyard, by the side of his first wife. Though the notice was brief, there was a large and spontaneous gathering at the grave-side of the flower of Northumbrian Methodism; of others whose names as employers of labour or merchants were household words; and of the poor, not a few, who had lost a generous protector and friend. Dr. Stamp, in a private memoir of the first Mrs. Stephenson, writes: 'Religion was with her a business: the great end of life.' The same may be written of him. The qualities which give value to a servant and sound success to a master were found in his religious life. Religion and business went together: religion first and business next. He was religious in his business, and business-like in his religion. In his service of God he showed industry, perseverance, punctuality, foresight, enterprise, method, prudence and integrity. The same qualities increased, developed and consolidated his business and fortune. He He was eminently straightforward. At times, he was outspoken alinost to brusqueness, just as a child will sometimes probe by the innocent, fearless directness of some question or comment, which cautious elders will think and not speak. was too manly and too kind of heart to use the forms of honesty to annoy or wound. His home was happy and healthy: for fifty years the Preacher's home, to which welcome was never formal or doubtful. He was given to hospitality.' In his society men were themselves. The picturesque of man and man' came out. Of quick sympathies, a good listener, very 6 observant and with stores of experiences, he was excellent company. Such a man, of course, acquired influence, incurred responsibilities, won honours, and wore them. He was active in public life. His services in the extensive Castle Ward Union, as member and ViceChairman for twenty-nine years, were acknowledged by a valuable testimonial on his retirement, and by resolutions, three years later, on the occasion of his death. He He was one of the promoters, and at his death President of the Newcastle Farmers' Club. He was interested in the county and other agricultural gatherings. keenly watched the applications of science and machinery to agricultural uses. He was a leader, from almost the beginning until his death, of the cause he founded. He promoted several chapels and schools; he was one of the largest contributors to the present Orphan-House Schools, and was trustee to a number of trust-estates in town and country. He repeatedly filled terms of office as Circuit-steward, In Foreign Missions he took an ardent, practical interest. By long prescription he was chairman of several meetings. He was interested in the work of God in all its departments. His gifts, like his services, were constant and hearty, and he appreci ated the work of others. Dr. Punshon writes: What more could a man have? A life protracted to the limit, "honour, love, obedience, troops of friends," a firm faith and a peaceful end. What more could crown a Christian life?' He was prosperous in business. His sons grew up around him; and they, too, pros pered in estate and character: his eldest son being a magistrate, and the first Wesleyan Mayor of the ancient borough of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and his youngest, cut off by sudden death, had held his father's former post in the Castle-Ward Union. He saw the Church advance in numbers and efficiency in the Circuit in which he lived. He witnessed the wonderful success of the opening of the Elswick-Road Chapel. He realized to the full the old blessing: Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion; and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.' He came to his grave 'in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season." Funeral services were held at Throckley and at Newcastle, at which men of all classes, and of all varieties of political opinion and religious belief, met to do honour to his memory. SAMUEL LEES. HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, PRINTERS, LONDON AND AYLESBURY. WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE. JUNE, 1879. MEMOIR OF THE REV. WILLIAM TRANTER: BY THE REV. W. MOISTER. MINISTERS who have undertaken to compile memoirs of dear departed brethren have frequently had occasion to complain of the difficulty of selection from the mass of materials placed at their disposal, in the form of memoranda, journals, letters, etc.; but the present writer has no such difficulty to contend with, for it is matter of regret that Father Tranter, who has so recently passed to his eternal rest, at the age of more than one hundred years. has left no record of his life or religious experience in any form. Nor can any assistance be obtained from his fellow-labourers in the Gospel; for of the forty-three colleagues with whom he was happily associated in the various Circuits which he occupied in the United Kingdom during the forty-three years of his active ministry, not one survives to testify to the excellencies of his Christian and ministerial character. And yet it seems hardly right to allow a veteran Minister to finish his course without some memorial of his long and useful career. Relying, therefore, almost entirely on recollections of my honoured father and friend, during a personal acquaintance of nearly half a century, and on such brief notes of facts and incidents as I was able to make after conversations with him at different times during late years, I have consented to pen this brief and imperfect sketch. WILLIAM TRANTER was born in the parish of Little Dawley, near Madeley, Shropshire (Fletcher's Madeley), on the 1st of May, 1778. At that period there were no Sunday-schools or other similar means of gathering children and young people into the fold of the Redeemer; and he, in common with so many others, spent his school-days and boyhood in sin and folly. It pleased the great Head of the Church, however, Who had a work for His servant in His vineyard, to call him in early life to a saving knowledge of Himself. A brief account of Mr. Tranter's conversion and early religious experience will be best given in his own words, as written down from his lips, when he was in a communicative mood : 'I was born of God when about nineteen years of age. I was led to seek religion by means of my special friend and companion in early life, the late Rev. Valentine Ward, who took me to some religious meetings commenced in our town by some of the followers of the Rev. John Fletcher; by means of which a blessed revival of religion sprang up, and a Class was formed where Methodism was not known before. It was at the first Class-meeting I attended that I found pardon and peace through faith in Christ Jesus; |