CHAPTER I. BOYHO O D. "LET PARENTS CHUSE BETIMES THE AVOCATIONS AND COURSES THEY MEAN THEIR CHILDREN SHOULD TAKE, FOR THUS THEY ARE MOST FLEXIBLE, AND LET THEM NOT TOO MUCH APPLY THEMSELVES TO THE DISPOSITION OF THEIR CHILDREN, AS THINKING THEY WILL TAKE BEST TO THAT WHICH THEY HAVE A MIND TO."—Lord Bacon. "Come, while the morning of thy life is flowing W. G. CLARK. CHAPTER I. BOYHOOD. N the Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, under date IN of Wednesday, June 18th, 1788, there is the following entry: "I designed to preach in the street at Bridlington, but the wind and dust would not suffer it. So many as could pressed into the house, but near as many were constrained to go away. I preached on Rev. xx. 12, and I believe not in vain." On this visit to Bridlington the great evangelist rejoiced to find that a Sunday-school had been formed, for he highly approved of the movement of which Robert Raikes, if not the actual founder, was the zealous friend and promoter, seeing in it, as he could scarcely fail to see, hope for the future generations of the land. service we have referred to several of the children of this Sunday-school were present, and, at the close of it, one of them, a little boy, then four years of age, was led by his mother to the venerable man's side, and placed between his knees. Here he repeated the twenty-third Psalm, and Mr. Wesley, whose love of children was intense, laid his hand on the little one's head, and gave him his blessing. And a blessing it proved to be, for the child remembered the event for years, and dated his earliest religious impressions from that very day. Let no one despise the blessing of a good man, and especially of an aged minister of Jesus Christ. Happy is the child, however young, on whom it is bestowed, for the prayer which accompanies it may be answered in many ways long after the lips that uttered it are silent in the dust. Nor was the sermon of that day preached in vain, for, whilst listening to it, that child's mother resolved to give her heart to God, and at once joined the Methodist Society, of which she continued a member to the latest day of her life. The child's name was George Smith. He was the eldest of several children, and was born at Bridlington Quay, on May 11th, 1782. His parents were persons in comparatively humble life, and as their means were scanty, and day-schools were but few, they were glad to send him to the Sunday-school which had been established in the town but a very short time. Here he learnt to read, and probably to write; for in those days writing was taught in many Sunday-schools as a necessity which does not now exist. Here, too, he committed to THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 5 memory many psalms and hymns, which he took great pleasure in repeating both to his parents and to others; and here he received impressions of the most valuable kind, which affected the whole of his future and somewhat chequered life. To Methodism he became devotedly attached, so that even whilst a child he could not bear to hear any of its ministers persecuted or maligned. One day he saw a preacher, who had been attempting to speak to a few people in the open air, attacked by a mob—who pelted him with stones and rotten eggs-when he ran home to his mother crying as if his heart would break, and told her what had taken place. She tried to comfort him and said, "Never mind, George, all this persecution will only cause Methodism to spread the more." Boys in seaport towns have their peculiar pleasures and pastimes—such as making boats and ships, rambling on the cliffs, building castles of sand upon the beach, and waiting till the tide comes in and surrounds them. In such occupations I spent many a joyous hour of my own childhood at Bridlington Quay, and so doubtless did the boy of whom I now write. He did not, however, specially wish to become a sailor, yet a sailor he became ; for, at a very early age he was apprenticed to his uncle, Captain Hutton, and thus entered on a seafaring life, destined to be long and very eventful. Captain Hutton, |