FOR FEBRUARY, 1839. BIOGRAPHY. MEMOIR OF THE LATE MR. CHARLES T. BAILIE, BY THE REV. RICHARD HADDY. CHARLES THEODORE BAILIE was born in London, on the 19th of August, 1810, where he spent the first nine years of his life, chiefly under the care of a pious grandmother, who instructed him in the nature of religion, and urged upon him the duty of remembering his Creator in the days of his youth. In the latter part of 1819 his parents removed to Africa, taking him along with them. His boyhood and youth he spent as those periods of life are too often spent. He became passionately fond of shooting, and spent much time in the pursuit of game. He was by no means vicious, but there was no practical recollection of God. It was about the year 1829 that other thoughts began to influence his mind. The circumstances immediately connected with this important change cannot now be ascertained. He kept a regular diary of his spiritual state from the beginning; but that, with many other books of his, was destroyed during the Kafir irrup♣ tion in the former part of 1835, when the house in which he had been living was burned. The writer of this account became acquainted with Mr. Bailie in 1833, and, in one of their first interviews, received from him a particular and highly satisfactory account of his convictions of sin, and of the manner in which he sought and found the pearl of great price. Not, however, thinking that he should ever have occasion to furnish an account of the Christian career of his friend, his relation was heard with grateful pleasure, but without any close attention to dates, and other minor circumstances: he only remembers that the account given was very scriptural; that Mr. Bailie's conviction of his own personal guilt and danger was deep and poignant, and that he carefully searched the Scriptures to learn the way of salvation and peace. He read them, however, with preconceived notions which greatly obscured their light, and prevented him from perceiving the plain directions they give to the awakened sinner. His relief was at last brought about by a singular occurrence. His father, seeing his distress, earnestly wished to remove it; and thought that diverting his attention from the subject that so painfully engrossed his mind, would be the most effectual way of doing this; and, meeting with an old volume of the Arminian Magazine in which he saw an account of VOL. XVIII. Third Series. FEBRUARY, 1839. the wreck of the Grosvenor East Indiaman on the coast of Africa, he thought this would powerfully interest his son, and therefore procured it. Bringing it home, he gave him directions for reading the narrative consecutively, passing over the other portions of the volume, which he considered as devoid of interest. Young Mr. Bailie, however, read other parts of the book, and found among them the memoir of an individual, whose case, when his soul was struggling for deliverance, bore a striking resemblance to his own. His attention was powerfully arrested. He saw his own state described, but described in connexion with deliverance and peace. He saw the way, he was encouraged to hope, and he earnestly sought reconciliation with God through the merit and intercession of Christ. He did not seek in vain. His prayers were graciously heard and answered; he received the Spirit of adoption, and rejoiced in hope of the glory of God. He now felt as though introduced to a new world. Eternal realities were unveiled to his faith. Even man appeared to have a dignity and worth impressed on him by his relations to Christ and eternity, of which he had before formed no conception. The amusements which had formerly so much gratified him lost all their charms in his estimation. Dancing, card-playing, and similar diversions, he looked upon as sinfully wasting time, the value of which he had now begun to feel. Besides he felt that he needed them not. He was happier without them than ever he had been with them. Although at an age when such temptations are strongest; and though, as his father was visited by the officers stationed in the neighbourhood, and other similarly respectable friends, his self-denial often required him to appear singular, and called for no common effort; yet, by the grace of God, he was faithful. His heart was fixed, and he was resolved to continue with his face Zionward. Not long after his own conversion one of his younger brothers was likewise called out of darkness into God's marvellous light, and became his companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus. To him this was a most joyful event: they loved each other before; but they now were united by a double relationship, and mutually aided each other in working out their own salvation. Early in the year 1830 Mr. Bailie was moved with much concern for the spiritual welfare of the several families living in the neighbourhood of his father's farm, who, being distant from Bathurst, where alone divine service was regularly performed, were entirely destitute of the means of grace. The deplorable effects of such a state of things cannot easily be conceived by those who dwell in a country in which religious ordinances are within the reach of almost every family. Where there is no Gospel ministry, there is no Sabbath; and where no Sabbath, no religion. The service of God, even if once known, is forgotten. Family religion is out of the question, and the moral culture of children is not regarded as a branch of parental duty. The rising generation grow up under such circumstances in awful estrangement from God. It is a developement of mind (perhaps it should rather be said, of sense and passion) unmixed with religious truth, unrestrained by religious obligations. The families living within each other's reach lose the benefit of that mighty influence which is produced on society by the regular association of rich and poor in one service, and before one common Lord; and with increasing forgetfulness of God, mutual kindness is fearfully diminished. All this Mr. Bailie saw, and was constrained by the love of Christ to attempt to supply the deficiency which he deplored. He obtained permission to fit up for public worship a house about a mile from his father's residence, and engaged to read the Liturgy of the Church of England and a sermon, to as many as chose to attend. An invalid Clergyman, residing at Bathurst, promised to supply him with sermons. Having established public worship, his attention was directed to the state of the children, and by himself and brother the plan of a Sunday-school was projected, and soon carried into effect. He soon, likewise, began to extend his labours for the salvation of his fellow-men; going to visit those who came not to him, and, in more distant places, collecting a small congregation in fine weather under the shade of a tree, praying with them, and speaking to them, from the overflowings of his own heart. Up to this time he had no acquaintance with the Methodists, but considered himself as a member of the established Church, though called by the providence of God to a peculiar path of duty. By some his motives were misunderstood, and his conduct misrepresented; but many rejoiced in the good of which he was, by the blessing of God, made the honoured instrument. He often found, however, that he needed the counsel and advice of more experienced Christians; and this, though in a way he did not anticipate, he obtained in the latter part of the year 1831, when he became, for the first time, acquainted with the Rev. William Shaw, Wesleyan Missionary. He had now known the Lord about two years, and the greater part of the time he had been usefully employed in the manner already stated. From his correspondence with Mr. Shaw he derived great spiritual advantage, but his connexion with the English Church was not altered till towards the close of 1832. Just before this a misunderstanding arose between himself and the Clergyman who has been mentioned as supplying him with manuscript sermons. This gentleman made a proposal to him which he considered as an interference with the religious liberties of himself and the people who were accustomed to worship with him; and he therefore declined compliance with it. He went over to Bathurst to offer explanations; but as he still judged it his duty to refuse to comply with the proposal that had been made to him, his explanations were not considered as satisfactory, and the Clergyman refused to supply him any longer with sermons, or to afford any countenance to his labours. In these trying circumstances he felt not only for himself, but for the people, who had now no Minister to visit them, or to ad minister to them the sacraments. He therefore believed it to be his duty to join some other portion of the Christian church; and his thoughts, through his friendly intercourse with Mr. William Shaw, were naturally directed towards the Wesleyan Methodists. He was aware that the doctrines of the Prayer-book were decidedly taught by the followers of the Clergyman, John Wesley; and he believed that their itinerant ministry was particularly adapted to the circumstances of the comparatively infant colony. For such reasons he proposed to his brother that they should join the Wesleyan Connexion; and that the place of worship they had fitted up and occupied should be taken on the Wesleyan Preachers' plan, that the people might be supplied with regular Ministers, and have the advantage of their occasional pastoral visits, and the administration of the sacraments by them. Accordingly, in September, 1832, he was admitted into the Methodist society, when he received both a ticket and a class-paper from the Rev. Samuel Palmer, then the Superintendent of the Salem and PortFrancis Circuit, contiguous to the eastern part of which Mr. Bailie was residing. At the ensuing Quarterly-Meeting he was proposed as a candidate for the Local Preachers' plan; and having undergone the usual examination, and preached to the satisfaction of his brethren, he was cordially received as a fellow-labourer. We have thus traced the history of our departed brother to the time at which he joined the Wesleyan Methodists. During the remainder of his short career he is to be regarded as an esteemed member of their society, and an acceptable and useful Class-Leader and Local Preacher among them. I was appointed, as I have already stated, to the Bathurst Circuit in the beginning of 1833. Mr. Bailie's piety was at that time fervent and influential, his conversation was spiritual and edifying, and his zeal for the salvation of others strong and steady. About the middle of 1833 he came to reside at Bathurst for a time. He spent an hour with me daily, for the purpose of becoming more intimately acquainted with the Dutch language, and of being thus qualified for more extensive usefulness amongst the Boors and Hottentots; and especially that he might be able to preach to the soldiers of the Cape corps at Kafir-Drift, where we had regular service every Lord's day. Towards the close of this year (1833) he entered into the marriage state; and his choice was such as was to be expected from one who was actuated by the motives to which Mr. Bailie desired always to submit. His wife was like-minded with himself,-resolved to save her own soul, and rejoicing in the prosperity of the work of God. He now returned to the neighbourhood in which he had before dwelt, and began keeping a boarding-school. To extensive scholarship he made no pretensions, but he was able to instruct a very numerous class of the community, in this new settlement, in those branches of useful knowledge by which they would be fitted for those stations in life in which they were intended to be placed. He was, likewise, led |