THE METHODIST MAGAZINE, FOR MAY 1908. IN BIOGRAPHY. MEMOIRS of Mr. JOHN CROOK. (Concluded from page 151.) N the year 1786, Mr. Crook returned to the Ile-of-Man, and after labouring faithfully there, in conjunction with others, left, at the end of two years, the numbers in Society 170 fewer than he found them. What a contraft apparently, in point of fuccefs, between his two years' labours in Charlemont Circuit, and thofe two laft-mentioned! Nevertheless, Mr. Crook was ftill the fame excellent apoftolic man; and the circumstance of great apparent profperity at one time, and of little or none at another, neither did, nor could affect his character, either as a Chriftian, or a Minister of the Gofpel. If many of thofe who had been the immediate difciples of our Lord, forfook their Divine Master, went back and would walk with him no more; (John vi. 66.) it is not to be wondered if several, that for a time had attended the ministry of Mr. Crook, fhould grow weary of well-doing, whatever diligence he might use in watching over their fouls. In 1788, Mr. Crook, after an abfence of two years, was ap pointed to labour in the Charlemont circuit. That circuit having been divided two years before, the number returned to him was 838; which increased, previous to the conclufion of his fecond year, to 1023. From the Charlemont circuit, he removed to the Tandragee circuit, where he remained one year, and then was removed to that of Newry, in which he laboured the two following years with no remarkable fuccefs. Mr. Welley, the venerable Founder of Methodifm, being in 1791 taken to his reward, Mr. Crook was called to the chair at the VOL. XXXI. May 1808. Bb Dublin Dublin Conference that year. That Conference was numerously attended. It is true, that for reasons which were of little or no weight, we did not term it a Conference, but a Committee of all the Preachers affembled. Virtually, however, and for all the purpofes of fuch a meeting, it was a Conference. Never did Mr. Crook appear to more advantage than in the chair. He poffeffed all the requifites for prefiding, viz. a good understanding, general knowledge, correctnefs of phrafe, a compaffionate heart, patience, fortitude, and dignity of character. No judge upon the bench did I ever know to take notes of a trial with more prefence of mind, or fum up the evidence adduced, with more propriety, than Mr. Crook did at every trial of importance at which I have seen him prefide. After having finished his fecond year, in the Newry circuit, Mr. Crook was called once more to the chair, to supply Mr. Mather's place, who had been appointed by the English Conference in 1792, to prefide in that of Ireland, the year following. His next appointment was Coleraine; a place of which he always fpoke with much refpect and affection. He profeffed to have enjoyed there advantages for the improvement of his mind, fuperior to those he had ever been favoured with in any other circuit. These advantages confifted in a choice collection of books, to which he had accefs, the leifure he had for reading them, and the very intelligent as well as pious characters with whom he had many opportunities of converfing. Those who knew him need not be told how capable he was of fetting a due value on fuch helps, and of ufing them to the beft of purpofes. They know that in reading he was indefatigable; that he read with judgment and tafte; and that in well-informed, religious fociety, he found uncommon pleafure. He was far removed from the little, selfish fpirit of those who can enjoy nothing in converfation, which they do not themselves deliver. He never seemed disposed to obtrude his own fentiments on others, nor, on any occafion, to take an undue share of the converfation. Indeed, he leaned too much to the oppofite extreme; for fuch was his native and habitual modefty, that he generally fuffered individuals to take the lead in converfation, whom he was very capable of inftructing. If this was a failing, and I think it was, it was furely one which "leaned to virtue's fide; " and one to which many characters of uncommon worth for fenfe and piety have been addicted. After Mr. Crook had laboured two years in the Coleraine circuit, with comfort to himself, and, no doubt, profit to the people, we find him appointed again to the Newry circuit. That circuit was, with him, a favourite one, feveral of the members of fociety in it having been "Plants of his hand, and children of his care." The The custom in Newry then was for the preacher in town to preach ten times each week. Each of the two preachers, for it never had more, laboured in the town one half of his time; and of courfe preached there 260 fermons annually. It follows from this calculation, that Mr. Crook, having laboured in that circuit four years, out of the laft fix he spent in Ireland, preached in the town of Newry during that time upwards of 1000 fermons. But as he was very diligent in reading, prayer, and meditation, his fund of Divinity was never exhaufted. He ftill, like a scribe well-inftructed in the kingdom of God, brought out of his treafure things new and old. He was, what the Puritans would have called, a pious, painful, and laborious minifter of Chrift. His fermons were not a collection of dry bones mechanically united; no, they confifted of facred, inftructive, and animating truths, a happy compound of what tended to excite and invigorate the affections and inform the understanding. But the best of all was, God was in his preaching; and hence all fuch of his hearers as were truly fpiritual, felt the divine unction with which it was accompanied. Nor let any fay that this is the ftrong colouring of a friend, and which fhould, on that account, be received with confiderable abatement; for they never thoroughly knew the man, who would hesitate to credit all, and more than all, that I have offered to his advantage. His was modeft worth, too apt to be caft into the back ground in popular affemblies; and hence many of his brethren in England who knew no more of him than what they learned by feeing him at Conference, knew him very partially. During his last appointment to Newry, he was called to bear the heavy cross, arifing from the ficknefs and death of his firft wife, a woman of good natural fenfe, as well as genuine and unaffected piety. She was a tender, affectionate wife, who greatly honoured, because the truly loved, her excellent hufband. She, well for her! did not live to be a witness of his great and complicated fufferings. As fhe had long lived, fo fhe died, rejoicing in God her Saviour. She refts in the grave of an old friend, who, in her life time, knew how to value her worth; and in death they were not long divided. In the year 1798, Mr. Crook was once more appointed to labour in the Ifle-of-Man. During his stay in the Island, he fuffered very much from that fevere fcorbutic complaint in his legs, which, mocking the power of medicine, united with the most fuitable regimen, eventually caufed his death. The Irish brethren, wishing to have him once more among them, though no longer an effective man, appointed him in 1799, fupernumerary for the Dungannon circuit. He did not, however, fill this appointment; but, after continuing fome time in Leeds, towards the end of the year he Bb2 went |