William M'Kendree [pp. 201-205]

THE
L ADIE S' REPOSITORgY.
JUNE, 1852.
WI L L I AM M' KENDREE. earnestly desired to be saved from it, and to flee
from the wrath to come. He prayed, he wept, he
BY PROFESR. Aa..... read, he thought; but he had none to encourage,
-~~~~- ~ none to aid, none to guide him. Nor his associates,
OF the early and efficient coadjutors of Asbury nor his teacher, nor his parents, nor his parish
there are some of whom unfortunately little is minister knew any thing of experimental religion.
known to the public of the present generation. They had never felt the godly sorrow of repentTheir history has never been written. Any sketch ance; they had never exercised the faith that brings
which we may make of them must prove faint and justification; they had never passed through the
indistinct. Their names loom up dim and distant in struggles of the new birth.
the shadowy past. In their day they were stars The poor boy, in doubt and in darkness, in susof the first magnitude. In their course along the pense and anxiety, wandered alone along the devious
track of time they spread all about their path a way, from childhood to youth, in search of that
glorious radiancy. In that brilliant light their which he could not find; his soul found no place
cotemporaries walked and rejoiced. But to us is of rest; his heart found no object to grasp; his
left only a dim, hazy, waning twilight. The gen- mind found nothing on which it could rely.
eration that shall follow us may know little or When he was about nineteen years old he heard,
nothing of them. Who will rescue their names from for the first time, a Methodist preacher. We have
the oblivion that threatens to cover them? Are no means of determining who had, in the provithere not materials for the biography of these dence of God, the honor and the glory of being the
men of blessed memory? Where are they? and first to shed the light of Gospel truth along the
who will weave them into a beautiful, instructive, dark path of the youthful M'Kendree. What Wesand entertaining narrative? leyan first, applied the soothing doctrines of grace
What few-facts we have been able to gather we to that sensitive mind? Was it Asbury himself?
will use for a slight and temporary sketch, hoping Or was it one of the American worthies of blessed
we, or some other, may hereafter find materials for memory, raised up by Providence as heralds of
a more extended and interesting biography. salvation in those early days of Methodism? or
WILLIAM M'KENDREE was born in the state of Waters, or Dromgoole, or Pedicord, or Tunnel?
Virginia, in 1757. His parents were members of The preaching of that Methodist, whoever it might
the American branch of the Church of England. be, carried conviction, deep and pungent, to the
When very young he became seriously disposed heart of M'Kendree. He yielded to the conviction;
from reading the Bible in the common school. he resolved to lead a new life. In accordance with
Naturally quick in his perceptions, thoughtful in Methodist usage-the usage of receiving as memhis habits, and sensitive in his moral nature, he bers on trial all such as desire "to flee the wrath
was affected by the simple and evident truths of to come, and to be saved from their sins"-he was
the Divine revelation. He read the story of Jesus. admitted to the connection. The scene must surely
His highly sensitive soul was moved at the exhibi- have been a thrilling one, when the noble, the
tion which that story presented of love, of mercy, accomplished, the generous, the buoyant M'Kendree
of goodness, of virtue, and of suffering. His clear went forward, before the whole congregation, and
perceptive power and his strong understanding gave his hand to the minister of God. Little did
enabled him to see and to apprehend the nature he then think how glorious a career was before him.
and the design of the mission of Jesus Christ. He Though he became a member of the society, yet
comprehended, so far as youth without personal had he no evidence of conversion. He had only
instruction may do it, the doctrine of depravity, of the form of godliness; the power he was seeking.
the atonement, of repentance, of faith, and of re- Not, however, being yet fully aware of the illusory
generation. He became convinced of sin, and deceptions of the unregenerate human heart, nor
VoL. XII.-16