| James HORNE was an avid Methodist Lay Preacher. After his death in 1871, his friends wrote this book about him. |
“THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS”
MEMORIALS
JAMES
HORNE
IN
SURREY ;
AROUND
GUILDFORD
WILLIAM
WILLMER POCOCK B.A.,
REV
H. J. SYKES
___
PRICE
THREE PENCE.
GUILDFORD:
MATTHEWS,
PRINTER, STATIONER, &c., HIGH STREET
1871
Preface
This book was written in 1871 about my Great Great Great
grandfather James HORNE. The text in this version has been partly (OCR)
scanned, and partly “copy typed” from a photocopy of an original copy of the
book.
Originally it was difficult or impossible to retrieve some
of the original text, however I am indebted to the “Normandy Historians”, who
provided a second photocopy of the original book, from which it was possible to
retrieve the remainder of the original text.
As far as possible I have tried to keep to the original
format of the book, but in a few places this was not possible, and the
pagination is not 100% similar to the original (mostly due to differences between
Victorian and PC type fonts!).
I have tried to be as careful as possible to keep to the
original text, but inevitably there may be some “typo’s” in this version, again
I would be grateful if anyone sees or suspects any discrepancies, if they could
let me know. My thanks go to Peter Blakiston of “Normandy Historians”, who
kindly read and corrected my first attempt.
I would presume that the original book had a fairly limited
print run, and so far I have been unable to locate an “original”, which I would
dearly love to do, any assistance with this would be appreciated.
Trevor Neil Stanton
3/2002
MEMORIALS, &c.
JAMES HORNE was born in thc city of Salisbury,
Oct. 9th, 1798. Beyond this fact and the vastly more important one, that his
parents loved as well as feared God, but little is known of his earliest
years. He lost his father when quite
young, but cherished a lively recollection of his
widowed mother as a good Methodist,
who often led him by the hand to the six o'clock morning prayer meeting. For a short time he was indebted to the
assistance of friends, but was early thrown upon his own resources, to which
may be traced the character of self-reliance and well-regulated independence of
mind that throughout life characterized his conduct. Before he
was seventeen years
of age he went to sea, a calling
that he followed for four years ; during which,
amidst all the dangers, moral and spiritual, to which it exposed him, he was graciously
watched over and pre-served by a loving
god, -- a result that he in after
life attributed to the
early training and faithful
prayers of a pious mother. upon relinquishing the sea he settled near
Buckingham, and soon after -- on Sept. 21st, 1819 -- was united in matrimony to
Mary Chitty, of Poyle, Surrey, who now mourns his removal.
At this time, though
having the fear of God before their
eyes, they had neither of them realized an interest in His love ; but it was not long before they were made
partakers of this blessing that gave
a new
character to their existence, and
was the fountain of all their joys throughout a long and wellspent life. It
was in the year 1819, whilst
listening to a sermon by the Rev. W. Breedon, in the
Wesleyan Chapel at Padbury, near Buckingham,
then in the Brackley
Circuit, from the text “Then they
that feared the Lord spake often one to another"
(Mal. iii. 16), that James yielded to the strivings of the Spirit,
and determined to
cast in his lot with the
people of God . He at once sought and obtained admission to
the Methodist Society, an example that
was followed by his happy
partner the fol-lowing quarter. A
sermon by the same minister from the text, “Break up your fallow ground "
(Jer. iv. 3), preached in the Buckingham Chapel, was the immediate cause of
this decision on her part. They proved the
blessedness of Christian communion not only between themselves, but also with
the people of God, and for a short time they were supremely happy in their
newly-formed connexions, when the failing health of Mrs. Horne re-minded them
that they still were denizens of the vale of tears. Other remedial measures
failing, James was advised to take his wife
to her native air in Surrey. She had been born at Poyle, in the parish of Seale, not far from Aldershot. Her parents were at that time living in the
same vicinity, her mother being attached to the Independents, but her father to
the Wesleyans, whom he had joined some twenty years before as one of the
fruits of the Farnham Mission. The good old man and
his wife died at
the advanced ages
of eighty and
eighty-seven in perfect peace. The recently-married couple accordingly
left Buckinghamshire and came to
Flexford, a hamlet near Poyle, lying a little off the road from Guildford to
Farnham, but other-wise about midway between those places.
“No one,” he
writes, “can tell the loss of Christian society but those who have felt
it. I had been in the habit of
con-ducting the services before I left Buckinghamshire, and therefore I began to think what I should do. Two
or three of used to meet together to read and to pray, and I used to
give an exhor-tation. A friend opened his house at Flexford, and we held
service there for some time, and the congregation increased ; but being a timid
man, he feared his landlord would turn him out of his house," and the services had to be relinquished. At this time Mr. Horne was keeping a school,
but though good numbers encouraged his labours, the occupation was not
favourable to his health, and he sought
for other employment. In the year 1822
a small farm at Normandy* was to let,
and obtaining a promise of a lease of it, he took possession and felt himself settled
in the neighbourhood. “Then,” he continues,
we began seriously to think how we could get Methodist preaching. I
asked a few friends to meet at my house, and after consultation I wrote to Mr.
Gaulter, then the President of the Conference,” or more pro-bably as Chairman,
as he then was, of the 2nd London District. The letter, it seems, miscarried,
and as a result of a second meeting, Mr
Horne undertook a pilgrimage to Chertsey in search of a Methodist
preacher; and thus
he describes his
*It was in this village that William Cobbett for many
years lived, and plied his trenchant pen. He is described as a good neighbour,
on very friendly terms with Mr. Horne. His farm is now the property of
Wesleyans, and his house the home of the Methodist preachers
journey :- “I accordingly went one
Sabbath morning, distance thirteen miles
to walk ; was very much pained as I walked along to see the desecration of
the Sabbath. Men were every-where at work in their gardens, some at harrow,
others digging and planting. Such was the state of Surrey fifty years ago.”
Arrived at Chertsey he finds
the preaching place closed and
The services abandoned; and enquiring of the only person who, he was told, could give him information about the
Methodists, he had no sooner “mentioned the name of Wesleyan Methodists than it
was like putting a match to gunpowder,
and he closed the door in my face. . . . . Thoroughly disgusted and
dis-heartened I began my homeward
journey, and as I sat by the wayside to
eat some refreshments I had taken with me,
I felt like Jonah, cast down and deserted.”
But it must not be supposed that
whilst he was thus longing, though in vain, for the refreshing ordinances of
Methodism, he refused or neglected to drink of such streams as were ready at
hand. The waste lands and barren heaths of Surrey were but too true
a type of the moral and spiritual wilderness around; but amidst the almost
complete neglect of religion that afflicted his soul, there were some spots
cultivated. There was an Inde-pendent chapel at Perry Hill, some three miles
from his res-idence, with whose minster, Mr. Haymes, Mr. Horne formed a close
and lasting friendship. These two became hearty co-workers in the vineyard of
the Lord, Horne's house being the home of the minister when he came to
prosecute his labours at Normandy or Flexford, and himself foremost in securing
the erection of a chapel at Normandy in connection with the
Con-gregational Surrey Mission
(three of his pupils being the first to subscribe half-a-crown
each), and the instrument of raising an efficient and
flourishing Sunday School on the same premises, and to this day there are those
who remember him as the best conductor the school ever possessed.
About this time the hearts of Mr.
Horne and his friends were cheered by an unexpected visit from the Rev. R.
Haddy, whose name first appears on the Minutes as a missionary to S. Africa in 1825. He and his wife had come to Guildford to see her father before they sailed, and enquiring for any Methodists in the
neighbourhood, he had been directed to Mr. Miller (still living, 1871),
and by him to Mr. Horne. “We
gave him a cordial welcome, spent the afternoon conversing about the
place and what could be done,” and he promised on his return to London to use his influence with the
President on their behalf.
Hope now ran
high, but was destined to be again frustrated. Upon Mr. Haddy's return to
Guildford he found Mr. Vidler, from the Mission House, urging his return to
London, As the ship, instead of sailing in three or four days, was to leave the
next morning, so that no opportunity offered for the exercise of his kind
intentions. They were the more glad
that they had “not let him go without a
sermon, and he preached in the evening to about seventy persons. And gave great
satisfaction,” the rem-embrance of which
has lasted for well nigh half a century.
Amidst hopes and disappointments James
Horne continued to worship at Perry Hill, carefully giving the friends there to
understand that he was a Wesleyan in heart,
and would take himself off as
soon as his efforts or the providence of
God should bring the Wesleyans to his neighbourhood. One Sabbath morning he was
not a little surprised to be informed that two gentlemen from Godalming awaited
him outside the chapel. These were Mr. Isaac Austen, from the Sevenoaks Circuit,
who had lately established a business at the former town, and Mr. Golding, a
young man whom he had found in a draper's esta-blishment there. They had some
time yearned for Wesleyan associates, and learning there was a Wesleyan chapel
in that direction,at a distance of nine or ten miles, they had started with a
determination of finding it, for in no other direction could any-thing of the
kind have been discovered within twenty or thirty miles. They had walked
sharply for two or three hours when they fell
in with a man of whom they enquired
whether there was any Methodist
chapel or any Methodists in the neighbourhood. Their respondant treated them to
a rich dish of Antinomianism, liberally spiced with abuse of all Methodists and
Methodism generally, but wound up by directing them to Perry Hill Chapel, at a
distance of two or three miles, where just then they would probably find James
Horne, who could no doubt tell them all
about the Methodists if the neighbourhood were unfortunately cursed with any.
The production
of their hymn books and exhibition of their society Tickets, obtained by post
from Sevenoaks, only about forty
miles off, soon explained their object and made James Horne’s heart jump for joy. His hopes seemed at last about to be realized.
They spent that day in reading, prayer, and praise, mixed with Christian
conversation at Mr. Horne's, who shortly returned the visit at Godalming. It was then some months before the
intercourse was resumed, till upon the occasion of the Rev. Hugh
M’Neil, then of Albury,
preaching at Stoke Church,
near Guildford, they by mutual
consent made that a half-way house of meeting, and continued their intercourse
and explana-tions of apparent coolness till near midnight, pacing up and down the Woodbridge Road, little dreaming
they should ever there see the commodious
Guildford Chapel that now adorns
the spot. From that hour “our friendship,” writes James, “continued until death,”
and the affectionate manner in which Mr. Horne always spoke of Mr. Austen was
sufficient to satisfy any one that they had been friends united by the closest,
dearest, and most enduring ties.
The operations
of nature and of Providence are carried on more by the concurrence of several
cooperating causes or events than by
any single and remarkable
exhibition of power. In like
manner several trains of
events were now working together to produce the result for which James
Horne had for years prayed. A
gentleman of the name
of Thomas Kee-ling, of Runcorn, in Cheshire,
and whose mother had
lived and died a member of the Wesleyan Society, had some years before
this come to Puttenham, a village midway between Normandy and Godalming, to
study Hebrew and Greek, under the
clergyman of that parish, with the view of entering the ministry of the
Established Church, the living of St. James’s, Manchester, being at his
command. The tutor was an eccentric character,
and probably more fond of the field than the study; at all events the
pupil oft times found that, when ready
with his lesson, his preceptor was wanting. Upon one occasion, however,
he abruptly sent young Keeling to a certain village to read a sermon to the
people in lieu of the service they were expecting from himself. This first
effort was so far successful that it was repeated, and before long the sermon read gave place
to a chapter in the Bible, accompanied
by an
exhortation and prayer, and in the end the pupil became quite popular.
In the meanwhile he begun first to question, and then to decide, that he had no
call to the ministry ; but having become fully alive to the spiritual
destitution of the locality, he regularly visited the sick, distributed tracts,
Bibles, and other religious books, and conducted regular service first at a
house in Flexford,
and then at a small chapel at
Pink's Hill. These he maintained at
intervals for several years : for, being of a delicate constitu-tion, he passed his winters in the south of France,
and took the opportunity to visit
Flexford on each of his journeys going and returning.
With this gentleman Mr. Horne had early
become acquainted,
and indeed he had acted as his
agent in supplying the people during his absence with tracts and books. On the occasion of his visit about Easter,
1825, Mr. Horne wrote to invite, Mr. Austen
and Mr. Golding over to
hear him. Some of the
people, unknown to Mr. Horne, had urged Mr. Keeling to get him to preach,
so that, the services might be continued during his absence, and before leaving
the pulpit in the evening he an-nounced that preaching would be continued on
the following Sabbath, Many supposed he was about to prolong his visit, but
upon descending he informed Mr. Horne that he must conduct the services in
future. Mr. Horne hesitated to comply,
but taking Mr. Austen and
Mr. Golding with him to his
father-in-law’s, he at length consented to make an attempt on the next
Sabbath, on condition that Mr. Austen would supply for the following one, and
be ready in case of a break down. A
large congregation greeted his first attempt, when he selected as his
text, “Seek ye
the Lord while he may be found,” &c.,
and like many another young evangelist, when he had done he thought the
Bible could not furnish him with another text ; though subsequent experience
also taught him that appropriate texts are easier to find than suitable
sermons.
Such was the simplicity of
his call
to preach, He felt anxious to
attempt something for the good of his neighbours, but did not press himself
into the work. No bishop's hands laid
upon his head separated him to the work of an evangelist. He passed no
examination at a local preachers’ meeting. He conformed to the conventional
rules of no church. The matter was
discussed by a few of his neighbours,
devoid of all ecclesiastical authority, and settled between his own
conscience and the Master. “I used,” he writes, “to have my hymn book in my
pocket, and opening it upon this occasion my eye lighted upon this verse,-
“My talents,
gifts, and graces, Lord,
Into Thy
blessed hands receive,
And let me live
to preach Thy word,
And let me to
Thy glory live ;
My every sacred
moment spend
In publishing
the sinners' Friend.”
Thus commenced a laborious life in
the service of God and in connection with Methodist ordinances : for no superintendent at this time directed
or controlled their proceedings, nor
indeed any recognised agent of the Conference had any cognisance of them,
further than the
preacher at Sevenoaks,
who quarter by quarter
remitted their tickets by post to Mr. Austen and Mr. Golding. These two self
constituted local preachers in turns furnished essentially Wesleyan services to
those poor people for a whole year or longer, without remune-ration of any sort
or any wish for any, but free of all cost to those who heard; having freely
received they freely gave.
About this time a
supervisor of Excise of the
name of Hall had been sent to Guildford.
Finding that there was no Methodist preaching at Guildford, but that there was such at Pink's Hill, he
speedily went over and formed the acquaintance with, and strengthened the hands
of, our two zealous friends. His pro-fessional duties taking him to the Paper
Mills at Chilworth, some three miles on the opposite side of Guildford, he
there obtained from Mr. Rowland, the proprietor, permission to have preaching
in one of the large mill rooms, in
which one of their friends had a Sunday
School of one hundred children. Mr.
Austen was the first to open the commission at this place, which he
did in May or June, 1825,
to what they considered a large
congregation. In this way their labours were increased without any increase of
labourers, for Mr. Hall soon procured a removal to a place where he could enjoy
intercourse with a Wesleyan Society. Still Horne and Austen laboured on, and
God blessed their labours. The foreman of the paper mills, a backslider,
was restored, the piety of his
wife quickened, three, and ultimately the whole of their children brought into
the right way.
But it was not long before opposition met
them. The services at Pink's Hill were conducted in a chapel belonging to the
Unitarians, who occupied it only once in a fortnight, and through Mr. Keeling's
influence lent it when not required for their own services. The regular
minister from Mead Row, Godalming, obtained but a small congregation when he
visited the place, sometimes not more than could be counted on the fingers of
one hand; but when Horne or Austen preached the place was crowded
with two hundred hearers. This
then, was a manifest misappro-priation of the edifice, and at the end of twelve
months our friends were requested to discontinue their occupation! What was to
be done ? A worshipping people had been
gathered, consciences awakened, souls converted, a Class of eight or ten members
constituted, if with some irregularity. Must the field whitening to the harvest be abandoned to the wild beasts
of the forest ? No such thought could be entertained for a moment ; and
Mr. Horne opened his own house for the services, the Class, the Sunday
school, and prayer meetings
; and for
thirty-six
years was this the preacher’s
home, and for a large portion of that period the preaching place too, until the
little chapel was built upon a piece of freehold land given for the purpose by
Mr. Horne, who had then become the owner of a small farm.
This miniature Circuit, embracing two preaching places and two local preachers, without either
travelling preacher or steward, had been in operation about a year, when one
Monday morning, upon mounting the coach
for London, Mr Austin recognized the Rev. W. Toase, then
Chairman of the Portsmouth District, journeying from his circuit town of
Portsmouth to the great metropolis. Mr. Austen soon laid the case of Godalming
and Normandy before the zealous chairman, who at once informed him of his
own efforts to introduce Methodism to Petersfield, a market town about
midway between Portsmouth and God-alming,
and where he had hired a barn or shed,
and was fitting it up at an outlay of £70 or £80, which, he said, he was
determined to pay out of his own pocket, if no one would help him. At his invitation Mr. Austen
was present at the opening of this chapel, on May 15th, 1826, and by his
permission, and relying upon his promise of assistance in every form
practicable, Mr. Austen and Mr. Golding, after hunting all over the town,
secured a room near the market house at Godalming, and fitted it up for
preaching at an outlay of £70. This was
opened on Good Friday, the Revs. W.
Toase preaching in the
morning, G. B. Macdonald in the
afternoon, and F. B. Potts, all from Portsmouth, in the evening. In the Minutes of 1826 Pe-tersfield first
appears alone under Portsmouth without the dignity of a number, the Rev.
R. Goyer being
the preacher, and reporting forty-seven members in 1827. This minister
visited and preached at Godalming one Sabbath,
shortly after the opening, and
at once set to work to organize a
Society. He found eight or ten at Chilworth ready to his hand, thence
eight miles to Pink's hill
and found a similar
class, re-turning five miles to
Godalming, where a good congregation awaited him, and where he formed a third
class of ten members: so that in 1827 Godalming is associated with Petersfield,
under the pastoral charge of Mr. Wilson (better known as Captain Wilson, from
having been the Captain as well as owner of a trading vessel), who reported one
hundred and eight members to Congress in 1828.
Not a little excitement and
opposition were created in the town of Godalming by the
intrusive audacity of these Methodists, who could not
help remarking that many
of their persecutors
were ere long silenced by
remarkable means. One a member of
another church, openly reviled the preachers,
calling them play-actors, and ridiculing them in every way ; but he was
soon glad to decamp in the night, to avoid being provided for at his country's
expense. Another, who was working close by the preaching-room, scoffed at the
people as they went in, saying they were going to hear a “cast-iron preacher,”
and that the whole thing was “going by
steam.” But shortly afterwards as,
he was going to London with his waggon, he slipped off the shaft and was killed on
the spot. He was a well-known
cha-racter in the town, and Mr. Austin
did not fail to draw the attention of the congregation to the awful suddenness
of his end.
The financial
arrangements of the Circuit during these first years were on a very limited
scale, the preacher's expenses for the year,
exclusive of travelling, varying from under £50 to about £65; but even
these could not have been met, but for the liberality of such men as Mr.
Irving, of Bristol, Mr. Crop, of London, and especially Mr. Butterworth, who
more than once contributed as much as £20 at a time.
In going Sabbath after Sabbath from
Normandy to his labours at Chilworth, Mr. Horne had to pass through Guildford,
and it was, to his mind, a source of
deep regret that there was no Methodist preaching in that town,
numbering its inhabitants as it did by thousands. There was then residing there, engaged in
tuition, a pious lady by name Miss Jostling. On her one Saturday, James Horne
called, and unfolded to her his anxieties ; and after an earnest conversation,
during which her mind was deeply impressed with the persuasion that she ought
to make some effort for the introduction of Wesleyan teaching, they united in
prayer that God would open their
way. There was also another pious lady residing there at
this time, whose pre-dilections for
Methodism were of old standing.
She was a native of Guildford, and more than twenty years before had
been awaked to s sense of her danger as a sinner by a sermon in the Independent
Chapel of that town, in which she had sought shelter from a storm that overtook
her whilst listening to the military band on the castle green. She had
subsequently accepted a situation in the family of the Rev. Peard Dickenson,
one of the “Methodist clergymen,” and
well approved of by Mr. Wesley,
doing as she had previously, to the knowledge of the writer, done - and in
which she might with advantage be imitated by others, - chosing
a family in which she might have religious
advantages in preference to those
in which greater worldly ones were offered. Here she attended the little
Wesleyan Chapel at Lambeth, and in
1807 received her first Society Ticket
from Dr. Adam Clarke
as a member of Mrs. Corderoy’s
class. She had now returned to her native town and become the wife of Mr.
Attfield, one of the deacons of the chapel in which she re-ceived her first
light. - (Meth. Mag., 1864, p. 1062).
On Good
Friday, 1829, and probably shortly after Mr. Horne’s interview with the former, these two ladies went to hear Rev. W. Wilson preach the anniversary sermons
of Godalming Chapel, if such it could be called, and in so doing got not a
little wet. Miss Jostling's muslin dress especially elicited Mr. Wilson's
sympathy, whose gallantry, as noted as his abounding cheerfulness, invited the
retort that it was all his fault, for not coming to Guildford to preach,
instead of making them come to Godalming to hear. Thus appealed to he promised
to come if a suitable place were found. Thus encouraged, Miss Jostling applied
to her friend Mr. Whitburn, the auctioneer and cabinet maker, to let them have
his auction room for preaching on the Sabbath, and one week night, which he
finally agreed to do, at a rental of £10 10s per annum. This room, capable of
accommodating two hundred persons, was accordingly fitted up, and the Revs. W.
Wilson and Timothy Ingle opened it; and here the Wesleyans worshipped till, in
1843, under the auspices of the Rev. Isaac Harding, the present handsome chapel
was created, due in great part to the munificence of the late William Haydon,
Esq., of the Guildford Bank, who for many years regularly attended the Wesleyan
ministry, and helped materially towards building chapels at Farncombe,
Normandy, and Shalford, as well as maintaining the various funds of the
Circuit.
Mr. Horne had
now been in the neighbourhood about seven or eight years ; he was as yet hardly
thirty years of age, was possessed of no wealth, and but a limited education ;
nor did he lay claim to any great natural talents, either of eloquence or of
any other kind. He had a young family rising around him, and had to earn daily
bread for them as well as himself by the
manual labours of a farm of a few acres, conjoined to the equally arduous
duties of a village schoolmaster; and yet, by persevering and faithful prayer,
and by sedulously following up the openings of Providence, he was the pioneer
as well as one of the main in-struments of establishing five or six preaching
places, with all their beneficent influences, and thus contributing to the
esta-blishment of a Wesleyan Circuit which,
with its offsets, forms
the centre of the otherwise
unbroken “Methodist Wilderness,” embracing the whole of West Surrey,
West Sussex, nearly the whole of
Hampshire, and large parts
of Wiltshire and
Berks. This had not
been done without
much opposition and much
self-sacrifice. The labours
of the farm
so fully oc-cupied
the time not
devoted to teaching, that he
had few hours for study and
even less for reading.
His favourite time for preparing for the pulpit appears to have been
whilst thrashing in the barn. With the
heads of his discourse chalked up on
the door, he
developed and rehearsed his discourses as he plied the flail. Twice and more frequently three times a day
he preached, say at home in the morning;
at Chilworth, eight miles, in the afternoon; Godalming, five miles, in the
evening, with seven miles to reach home, weary and perhaps wet, and half knee
deep in the heavy clays and muddy lanes of the Hog's back range of hills. Blackwater
and Frimley on the one side, Bramley and Hambledon on the other, were
still more distant stations, and yet he seldom even in his later days would go
otherwise than on foot, not caring to give trouble to others, nor counting his
own strength dear; always after the morning and
afternoon service hurried home if
not otherwise engaged lest the preacher should have disappointed the Normandy
cong-regation, and every now and then finding his solicitude not in vain -
without rest or preparation occupying the pulpit himself; and after all was done
he would not hesitate to go two or three miles out to visit the sick or
dying. Five, six, seven miles around
would he at any time go to pray with such as needed mercy, and many and many a
time has he seen them rise from their knees rejoicing in God their Saviour.
Many such still survive, but more have
gone before. A few days before his
death he stated there was scarcely a house in the neighbourhood from the
squire's mansion to the labourer’s cottage, in which he had not offered up
prayer with the inmates. For he made it a rule whatever house he entered, not
to leave it without speaking about Jesus
and praying with the people before he left.
Still there was nothing
obtrusive, bold, or boastful about him.
He had his own opinions and views,
his own line of action, and his own modes of proceeding; and
he valued them, not because they were
his own, - but rather they were his own because he valued them. He ever felt-
“ I the chief
of sinners am,
But Jesus died
for me.”
From the day of his conversion, to the day of his death, he was a man of strong faith
and persevering prayer, and scarce a spot in the fields but had been the
scene of his wrestlings : barn,
stable, cowstall, hayloft,
had been his closet. “Many an
hour,” writes his daughter, “did he spend in prayer for those who were
yet slumbering in their beds; and when the shades of evening
gathered around him, and no eye but that of God observed him, he might be found in a quiet corner of the field, like another Jacob, pleading for those that lay near his
heart, for the
church and for the prosperity of Zion.”
The whole course of his life was marked by consistency, integ-rity, and faithfulness. He never hesitated to rebuke the ungodly
with whom he came in contact, and many were led to acknowledge that this rebuke
was just. The glory of God and the
salvation of souls lay near his heart, and in labouring to secure these ends he
was willing to spend and he spent. Amidst much practical infidelity, great
indifference and abounding wickedness, all intensified by strong antinomian
hyper Cal-vinism he ceased not to declare the whole council of God, and to preach the unsearchable riches of
Christ, determined that if the word was choked or unfruitful the blood of souls
should not be upon his skirts.
He
was not without the cares
and troubles that flesh
is heir to. Losses he had in
business, and losses in his
family. Five of his thirteen children
he buried, four in infancy – the other a strong healthy young man of
twenty-four, was cut down in twenty
one days by inflammation of the
lungs. This was a severe trial, and was for a time felt more keenly, inasmuch as, not withstanding parental
influence, example, and entreaty, the young man had neglected the salvation of
his soul. Prayer, however, public and private, was made for him, and not in
vain. He sought and obtained the pardon of his sins; and with his dying breath
he sang –
“My soul,
through my redeemer’s care,
Saved from the
second death I feel ;
My eyes from
tears of dark despair
My feet from
falling into hell”
This took off the edge of the
affliction, and the father was able to
say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the
name of the Lord;” and yet he felt it
keenly. He earn-estly sought and prayed
for the conversion of all his children, and
it was evident to
them all that their salvation
next to his
own, was his first and chief
concern. Several of them have profited by his efforts and reaped this reward:
some in very early life gave their hearts to god and gratefully acknowledge the
strength and tenderness of fatherly love manifested towards them. One – the
first fruits of these his labours in his family – found peace under the
father’s sermon on the text “Chose ye this day whom ye shall serve,” and
recalls with affectionate remembrance the tone of voice and beaming eye with
which he spoke, especially dwelling on the glories of heaven.
The lease of' his farm having
expired, and his landlord, who
had promised him a new one, having just died, the
relative to whom the prosperity descended, refused to ratify the
promise, and Mr. Horne had to turn out, not knowing where to go. An abandonment
of Methodist practices would have
removed all difficulties in the way of his removing, the object of the land-lord and the squire being to root Dissent out of the
village. But just at this juncture,
the owner of a small freehold, de-sirous of parting with it, had
verbally agreed to sell it to the adjoining squire, for such a price as Mr Horne should put upon
it, his judgement and integrity being relied on by both parties. This price
having been fixed, the buyer demurred, and offered a smaller, and perhaps again
a smaller sum. The seller was nat-urally indignant, and appealed to Mr. Horne, who rejoined that if he
felt at liberty to depart from the former bargain, which the other party seemed to have
repudiated, he should himself be glad to become the purchaser. This he accordingly did, to the no small chagrin of the squire, and
his friends. Upon this little freehold Mr. Horne built a house, where he lived
and died, and before many years, on a corner of it, he had the pleasure of
seeing a sanctuary created for the worship of God. It would be well if the
tyrannous spirit that dictated his eviction from his tenancy had died out ; but
too many instances of its recurrence are constantly turning up to allow to hope
for an early realization of so desirable a consummation.
His pecuniary means were at no
time large, but he was always cheerfully contented, and possessed the
confidence and respect of all that knew him. For a short time in later years he
held the office of circuit steward, which his friend Austen had occupied in the earliest years of
the Circuit history. But the
spiritualities were more in accord with his tastes and talents than the
temporalities. He seemed to live to do good to the souls of men ; and yet he
did not, according to his opportunity, neglect to promote any
interest of the
church. We have already
noted
that he gave the ground on which
the Wesleyan Chapel at Normandy stands ; and just before his final illness,
when it was in contemplation to change the humble edifice, he offered to give
what additional ground might be required. The first missionary meeting in the
Circuit was held at his house in 1834, and the assiduity with which this object
was fostered may be gathered from the fact that with a chapel seating not more
than one hundred persons. Normandy furnishes from £15 to £20 per annum to the
Mission House.
The style of his pulpit addresses
was simple and unadorned, more remarkable for earnestness than any attempt at
originality or eloquence.Here as elsewhere his native modesty was apparent, and
his loving heart was felt. A ready command of appropriate language, which a
more extended and more grammatical
edu-cation might have improved, was kept within sufficient control to be
effective to the purpose of calling sinners to repentance, and of pointing them
to the Lamb of God. For he preferred to
dwell upon the love of God, rather than
his wrath, to woo rather than to
denounce. He was sufficiently apt at illustration, and could handle an anecdote
with effect. He never attempted to soar
beyond his reach, but believing that the truths of the gospel were of their own
inherent force, able to awaken men’s souls and make them wise unto salvation,
he sought to unfold them in the plainest, simplest, and most direct language
that he could possibly employ, feeling as well as knowing that the “excellency
of the power” must “be of God, and not of men.”
-----
We must now
bring this narrative to a close by giving some account of the last days of Mr. Horne.
The life of James Horne
was not full of remarkable incidents,
but it is a record full of historical interest in
connection with the Church
of his choice, and the spread of
religion in a part of the county still greatly destitute. He was faithful to that Church
which had been the means of his personal salvation ; he did not desert
Methodism because another member could not be found in a day’s march. He sought to supply that which was lacking
; and it is not too much to assert, that if all the sons and daughters
of Methodism placed in Surrey and the neighbouring counties had been equally
faithful, this “Methodist Wilderness” would ere
this have presented a different
aspect. James Horne
lived to see himself surrounded by
a host of Wesleyan ministers, local preachers, leaders, and members ; but
neither Methodism nor any other church has rightly cared for these rural
districts. In the south of our happy and enlightened England there is a space
of 2,000 square miles, including nearly all Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex, and
parts of Kent, Berks, and Wilts, with little
or no Wesleyan Methodism. The
population cannot be less than 750,000 ; Wesleyan ministers 12, or one to
62,500 of the people; Wesleyan members 1,200,
or one in 625 !”
This was written in 1871.* A great effort is now being to extend
Methodist ordinances in London ; when this noble effort has been crowned with success, let us hope that God will put it into the
hearts of His servants to do something
for these rural districts. They
help to swell the population of London ; they receive back again a part of its
surplus population, whom fortune enables to retire from business that they may
spend the rest of their days amid these lovely hills and valleys. Methodism is
“debtor to both.”
Mr. Horne's last illness
was not of long duration. Like other of God's servants he was not
without premonitions that his end was approaching. The last time he preached in Guildford
Chapel, though not then ailing he had a conviction that it
would be his last sermon there – and so it turned out. He was appointed to preach again on Christmas
day, 1870, but when asked if he would be able to do so, said,
“No ; my work is done.” At first
he felt it a great trial to be laid aside from a work in which he had taken
such delight for more than half a century. Blest with a robust frame,
self-reliant, and possessed naturally of great force of character, he found it
difficult to be compelled to say “no"
when “duty” called. During his illness he delighted to speak of
the work of God. Early in January, 1871,
he met his Class for the last time. It was a most affecting time ; he
gave an unequivocal
testimony to the
grace of God ; he spoke with the greatest tenderness to each of his
members. Before the month closed he paid his last visit to the house of God,
and though in great pain, joined in the service with his usual fervency.
In the beginning of February he began to be much
worse. He suffered a great deal of pain, which medical skill could do little to
alleviate ; but he was enabled to bear it without murmuring. At his request the
Rev. H. J. Sykes ; administered to him
the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper. His
wife and other
* Vide a series of Letters in the
“Watchman.”
members of the family, with
one or two Christian friends were
present. They felt how good it was to be
in “the chamber where the good man meets his fate.” The hymn
“Now I have
found the ground whereon,” &c
was sung, in which he joined with
great earnestness, especially the verse---
“O Love ! thou
bottomless abyss,” &c
His responses
to different parts of the service showed that his intellect was as clear as
ever. He seemed like one already in heaven. At the close he bid each one a
solemn “goodbye.” Grasping the hand of the minister he said, “The Lord bless
thee and keep thee ; the Lord cause his face to shine upon thee, and give thee
peace.” He then
prayed earnestly for the Circuit,
and all his fellow labourers, to whom
he sent messages of love. A few days later Mr. Sykes visited him again, in
company with Mr. Pocock. when he gave the last proof of his love to the
cause of God, by signing a document, giving a strip of land additional in case
the chapel at. Normandy should be enlarged. He was now much weaker, but his
mind was clear and his faith strong.
The twenty third Psalm was read, every word of which he seemed to make his
own, dwelling with marked emphasis in the verse ; “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Mr. Sykes asked him if he had any doubt about
the doctrines of Methodism which he
had preached for fifty years. He replied,
“None whatever. If I had life to
begin again I should study them with greater diligence, and preach them with
greater earnestness, because they are the doctrines of the Bible.
He requested Mr. Sykes to preach his funeral sermon, and selected as the text, “By grace ye are saved,” &c.
“From that” he said, “you can set forth the pure
gospel of Christ to the people, as
we believe,”-- in opposition to some in these parts, “who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”
During his
illness the Psalms of David and Wesley’s hymns were the constant vehicle of his
thoughts and feelings. He would call
one of his daughters by his bedside and ask for one of his “favourite” psalms
or hymns. The 116th psalm and 273rd Hymn were repeated again and
again. James Horne, like many
dying saints, found Wesley’s Hymns to be
the language of the heart, the language of genuine Christian experience, furnishing him with a
“Watchword at
the gate of death”
On Thursday, January 23rd,
it was evident he was sinking fast. He attempted to repeat the verse---
“When passing
through the watery deep,
I ask in faith
His promised aid:”
---but found himself unable to go on; -- his daughter
completed the verse for him;--
“The waves an
awful distance keep,
And shrink from
my devoted head:
Fearless their
violence I dare :
They cannot
harm for God is near.”
During the same day he repeated the verse—
“O remember me
for good,
Passing through
the mortal vale ;
Show me the
atoning blood,
When my
strength and spirit fail ;
Give my gasping
soul to see
Jesus crucified
for me!”
He added, “Ah ! it
is ‘gasping soul’ now ;
but I have firm hold.” His
religion was not to seek on a death bed ; he had served God for a long life, and
God did not forsake him then. On
Friday he appeared to be sinking fast. He said
“ I am now in the valley.” When
asked if God was with him “Yes” he
replied; “ Thy rod and Thy staff they
comfort me ; I will fear no evil.” During
the day he was too weak to converse much, and had a restless night. As the morning dawned he was heard to
repeat in a whisper—
“ Let it not my
lord displease
That I should
die to be his guest.”
When raised up in bed he repeated the lines---
“ When I walk
through the shades of death,
thy presence is
my stay ;
A word of thy
supporting breath
Drives all my
fears away.”
During the
whole of Saturday he was
unable to converse much. He lay calmly till the Chariot of Love
should convey him to be
“For ever with
the Lord.”
The Sabbath came,
and it proved to be his eternal
Sabbath. His mind was full of Sabbath thoughts. “Is
the preacher come?” he
asked “I cannot preach to-day,” he
added. When
told that the preacher had arrived
he appeared satisfied. The preacher, a student from Richmond, visited him, and
prayed with him, to which he responded. He then whispered to his daughter to
tell him that his whole desire was to
“ Catch a smile
from Jesus,
And drop into
eternity."
He had already bid farewell to
each of his children, and grand-children,
admonishing each to meet him in heaven. His last act was to bid farewell to Mrs,
Horne, who had been the companion of his earthly and heavenly journey fifty-two
years. “Good-bye,” he said, God bless you. The Lord
will take care of you. Look up
!" With the word he pointed
to the skies, and his spirit passed away into the presence of God,
“Our friend is
restored
To the joy of
the Lord---
With triumph
departs :
But speaks by
his death to our echoing hearts.
Follow after,”
he cries,
As he mounts to
the skies,
“To the
blissful enjoyments that never shall end.”
Thus died James
Horne, February 26th, 1871 in the 73rd
year of his
age.
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