REV. DANIEL JAMES DRAPER.
Daniel James Draper, a name that will henceforth be as honourably and
widely known in England as it was previously in Australia, was born at
Wickham, near Fareham in Hampshire, on August 28th, 1810. He was of
respectable parentage, his father being the chief carpenter and builder
in the village. Although unacquainted with the saving knowledge of the
gospel, his parents were strictly moral in their lives, and regular
attendants upon the services of the parish church; consequently the
influences which surrounded the child’s opening years were favourable
to the formation and growth of virtuous habits.
He was brought, however, to religious decision by coming in contact
with some devoted Wesleyans in the neighbouring village of Fareham.
They had a chapel in the village, and in it the gospel was fervently
and faithfully preached; and we doubt not the building--for it still
exists--will henceforth be memorable on account of its being the place
in which Daniel James Draper first saw the necessity of repentance
towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
By the door of this chapel young Daniel was occasionally found
listening, and taking in stray words of warning and of wisdom, as John
Bunyan did before him from the lips of the pious women of Elstow, who
talked of holy things as they spun and knitted in the sunlight before
their cottage doors. Daniel would not enter, but again and again the
lad was seen listening at the chapel-doors, and marvelling perhaps,
like the tinker of Bedford, at what he heard. On one occasion he
received a sharp rebuke for neither coming in nor going away, but only
standing without, and the reproof so wounded him that he resolved never
to go near the place again.
But to this resolution he did not keep; and ere long, in this chapel,
the truth of God was applied to his youthful heart, and he felt very
deeply the need of salvation. Outwardly in his life, hitherto, there
had been nothing worthy of blame; his conduct had been strictly
upright and moral; but now his conscience revealed to him depths of
depravity and guilt, of whose very existence he had been unconscious,
and he saw the urgent necessity of receiving pardon, and of becoming
a partaker of the new birth. By repentance and faith he immediately
sought reconciliation with God, and it was not long before he became a
rejoicing believer in the Divine love and favour.
Very naturally, he now openly connected himself with those from whom
he had received so much spiritual benefit, and he became an enrolled
member of the Wesleyan Society. He had not reached twenty years of age,
when, although still beneath the roof of his kind, church-going father,
he took this decisive step. His resolution to connect himself with the
Methodists was not favourably received by his father, or by the members
of his family generally, but young Daniel held on his way; yet, as he
did this with all the good nature that was so marked a characteristic
of his maturer years, there is reason to believe that his youthful
profession did not expose him to any opposition that pressed heavily
upon the buoyancy of his spirits. He even in these early days became
well known for the zeal and interest he displayed in the salvation of
the lost and perishing.
[Illustration: D. J. Draper]
Ere long the Methodists determined to erect a chapel in the village
of Wickham, where he lived, and it is interesting to remember now,
that it was built by Daniel and his father, and that, in the course
of a short time, the son had the opportunity, in that very chapel, of
proclaiming to his father the unsearchable riches of Christ’s gospel.
He was about twenty years of age when he enjoyed this privilege, his
gifts and character having placed him amongst the Wesleyan local
preachers. Although it was still distasteful to some members of his
family, he eventually decided upon devoting himself to the work of the
ministry, and never was a decision, we believe, more in harmony with
the Divine will and more signally honoured by blessed results.
When about twenty-two years of age the young preacher removed to
Brecon, with its towering beacons, pleasant streams, and still
pleasanter societies of Christian people. Mr. Draper is still
remembered there with affection, and many can call to mind his
devotedness to Christ’s service, his love for the house of God,
his familiarity with the Scriptures, and his attachment to the
prayer-meeting. A favourite hymn with him in those days was the one in
which this verse occurs:
“Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp his name,
Preach Him to all, and cry in death,
Behold, behold the Lamb!”
At Brecon he worked hard, both in the culture of his own mind as well
as in the service of his Divine Master. He read good and solid books,
and through his life long the substantial was always more attractive
to him than the glittering and merely artistic; he had no relish for
a literature that did not help him in his work, and all he acquired
in study he gave out in effort for the good of those amongst whom he
lived.
One can readily imagine his happy earnest life during those Brecon
days, of dangerous mountain journeys to the stations where he preached;
of open-air preaching by the river-side; of the welcome which the
warm-hearted Welsh people gave everywhere to the young preacher, we
can have no doubt. It was during this time that his sister, still
living at Brecon, received the truth in Christ, through her brother’s
instrumentality. He was destined, however, for a larger sphere of
usefulness than any which his own land could furnish, wide and urgent
as its claims were and are.
While he was at Brecon, his character and gifts had so generally
impressed several ministers and friends of his fitness for the regular
ministry, that he was recommended to the Wesleyan Conference as a
minister; and in 1834 he was appointed to the Chatteris Circuit, in
Cambridgeshire, and here the same energy and zeal characterized his
efforts.
At this time, the attention of various Missionary Societies was being
directed to the spiritual wants of those who were settling in the
colonies. Emigration was becoming more and more popular, and every
week multitudes were leaving our shores in search of the fabulous
fortunes which the colonies held up temptingly to their view. Gold, it
was hinted, would one day be found in any quantities by men who would
only have to dig for it; riches incalculable might be obtained in an
incredibly short space of time. The directors of Missionary Societies
were keenly alive to the danger that would accrue to the thousands
who were going away from the religious altars of their own land to
find themselves in a strange country, where the means of religious
instruction were of the most meagre description, and where there
would be the most terrible scope for the unbridled exercise of unholy
lusts and passions. They were therefore diligently on the look-out
for men of strong nerve and character, who could speak the right word
to their fellows, amid the fierce excitement which burned within
them;--men who could remind them of the hallowed association of their
old homes, consecrated as they had been by Sabbath and Bible, and, by
the remembrance of these, woo them to an interest in those things which
would be found important and lasting when all the gold of Australia
should have lost its value. The directors found many such men;--men
brave enough to remain poor, while thousands around them were becoming
rich; men who, in their strong might of godliness, stood like so many
breakwaters against the surging flood of sensuality, avarice, and
full-blown pride, which, in the course of time, threatened to submerge
the land.
Among the men to whom the attention of the Wesleyan Missionary
Committee was directed was Daniel James Draper, whom they were told was
well adapted for Missionary service.
Physically, he was a strong man; a man about the middle height in
stature, vigorous build, honest open face illumined by softly shining
eyes, and voice of full trumpet tone; a man capable of fatigue, one who
could endure hardness; decided, resolute, cheerful, and withal gentle
in every thing he did; liberal and catholic in his tendencies, ready
to learn and apt to teach; and above all, a man of strong faith and
devotion. When it was proposed to him to go abroad, he gave the matter
a brief but very earnest consideration, and at length he intimated his
willingness to obey the wish of the Committee, and at the same time to
be obedient to what he believed to be the call of duty and the will of
God. By this time he was a married man, his wife being the daughter
of Mr. Webb, of Fareham; and the young couple prepared to set out for
Australia. The young Missionary looked forward to his future field
of labour with the calmest confidence, as he thought of the Divine
presence accompanying him, and that he was neither going away from
his Saviour nor his work, because going to a distant land. He took an
affectionate farewell of his family and many friends, some of whom
accompanied him to the ship.
There are many yet living who can remember well the period of his
leaving England, and all the circumstances attending it. He went away
on the 13th October 1835, with the farewells of many devoted and noble
men ringing in his ears, whom, in the providence of God, he was never
destined to meet again. Jabez Bunting, among others, had given him
every encouragement, and had said to him, “Years of labour may be
before you, but success is certain: it must come, it must come!”--He
left his native shores with those words animating his heart:--“Success
is certain; _it must come, it must come_!” Never were words more
prophetic of the success which awaited the young Missionary’s efforts
in the far-off land to which he was going. The voyage out was a
dangerous one; the ship was overtaken by a violent storm, and at one
time the Captain had said, that in six hours they would all be at
the bottom; and thus shipwreck marked the beginning and close of his
Missionary life.
Mr. Draper arrived at Sydney early in the year 1836, and applied
himself to his work with all the enthusiasm and energy which were among
his main characteristics. He could indeed speak conscientiously of
“doing a week’s work,” for labour with him meant something, and was
far remote from pretence. On Sunday morning he preached in the city,
in the afternoon at a place fourteen miles off, and in the evening
again at Sydney. Every day and every evening of the week had their
engagements, which he perseveringly discharged; and while thus earnest
in his own sphere, he was on the most brotherly terms of communion with
the various branches of the church of Christ at Sydney and surrounding
towns. He could truly say,
“Be they many or few, my days are His due,
And they all are devoted to Him.”
A large amount of success attended labours thus constant and
conscientious; many, very many, will have reason to bless God for his
ministry at Sydney. It was not without drinking of sorrow’s bitter
cup, however, that he had to commence his work amid new scenes and
circumstances. He was early called upon to resign his young wife and
child into the arms of death, and to feel the grief of a widower among
strange people.
Subsequently his life for many years became subject to the changes
incident to Missionary life amongst members of the Wesleyan community,
and he was removed from station to station. It is gratifying to note,
however, that he left no station without also leaving behind him the
impress of a man whose one object it was to bring souls to God. In 1837
we see him pursuing his work at Paramatta; and from 1838 until 1841 at
Bathurst. He is at Sydney again from the last date until 1845. He goes
to Melbourne in 1846, and he was there for twelve months, during all
the excitement produced by the discovery of gold.
The following year, he removed to Adelaide, and continued there
until the year 1854. In 1855 he once more returned to Melbourne, and
travelled successively in the East circuit, the North and the South. He
was not without honour from his brethren in the ministry, who, in 1857,
chose him to be Secretary of the Australian Conference, and, in the
year 1859, elected him to fulfil the post of President. In addition to
his pastoral and other duties, we may also remark that he had deeply
interested himself, being a man of some means himself, in getting a
provision made for poor ministers and for the widows of such, and his
benevolent wishes were partly accomplished.
Such, then, is a brief outline of Daniel James Draper’s life, during a
period of about thirty years in Australia. The details of those years
of honourable service in the church of Christ will, if published,
reveal a life of no ordinary labour and no common success. But, if
never published to be read by the eye of man, we rejoice in thinking
that they are already known to Him who called him home, bade him rest
from his labours, and left them to follow him.
In the year 1865 Mr. Draper determined upon once more visiting his
native land, and the scenes of his childhood. It is said that the
love of Home was very strong in him, and that like a magnet it would
every now and then draw his heart towards his country and towards old
Fareham scenes and associations. His parents were now dead, and many
of the friends of his youth were gone, but still it would be good to
see the old place once more. He had married again, his wife being the
daughter of Mr. Shelley, one of the first Missionaries to Tahiti, who
sailed by the ship _Duff_ at the end of the last century. She was an
amiable and accomplished lady, worthy of her parentage and worthy
of her husband: we cannot accord her higher praise, or it should be
freely given. Having resolved to revisit the land of his birth, he was
not long in making all necessary arrangements, and accompanied by the
best wishes of friends at Melbourne, Mr. and Mrs. Draper sailed in
the _Great Britain_, and, after a voyage of sixty-four days, landed
at Liverpool May 20th of last year. He had come to this country not
only that his heart might be charmed by old and familiar scenes, and by
intercourse with friends, some of whose faces he had never seen, but
also in an official capacity. The Methodist Conference of Australia
had desired him to be their representative at the British Conference,
and his brethren in Australia had expressed themselves thus concerning
him:--“The Rev. Daniel J. Draper has our ready consent to visit the
land of our fathers. By our unanimous wish he is commended to you as
our representative in your next Conference. You need not be informed of
his valuable services to us; his intimate knowledge of our Connexion;
or the high esteem and confidence in which he is held. We believe
that from you he will receive a most affectionate welcome. He will be
followed by our prayers, that he may return to us in health, and in the
fulness of the blessing of Christ.”
The welcome which his brethren thus bespoke for him he everywhere
most cordially received. He preached in London, in Great Queen Street
Chapel; he was at the laying of the stone of the Wesleyan chapel now
being erected in the Caledonian Road; he preached in St. James’s
Hall, taking one afternoon the place of a minister who was unable to
conduct the special service there; and he preached, last of all, it is
believed, at Dalston, and afterwards administered the Lord’s Supper
with much solemnity.
As the representative of the Australian Conference, he attended the
British Conference at Birmingham, and, with the same object in view,
he visited Scotland and Ireland. At the sitting of the Conference in
Birmingham, his modesty, his manly sense, his quiet earnestness, and
his unaffected devotion called forth the general respect and admiration
of the ministerial fathers and brethren present. He also visited
some of the principal towns in England, and showed himself everywhere
the courteous, kindly, and cheerful man, with a sound judgment and
well-informed mind. As might have been expected, Fareham, the scene of
his childhood and of his first efforts to preach Christ, was among the
places he visited. He preached there, and had the grave of his parents
attended to and beautified.
We have met with those whose happiness it was to come in contact with
him during his stay in this country, and on all hands the testimony is,
that he was a man as much beloved for the rich human qualities of his
heart, as he was respected for his extensive practical knowledge of
life and the world. One remembers his hearty cheerful laugh, another
his telling anecdotes of Australian life, and another the simplicity
and fervour of his prayers. One tells of the trouble he took to find
out a young man in London, for whom he had been entrusted with a
message of kindness; all can tell of the deep tender devotion of the
man, untarnished by so much as a touch of fanaticism. One who was
brought into close communion with him for several hours, about two or
three weeks before he sailed in the _London_, has said:--
“I was much impressed by Mr. Draper’s conversation and bearing. He
had seen the world, and he talked like a man to whom men and things
were familiar. The experiences of life had evidently accomplished
their purpose in him. He was in command of himself; his judgment was
strong and well-balanced; his tone and manner altogether showed the
completeness, the symmetry, and the tender and genial perfection of one
who had laboured and suffered, and, in all, had grown wiser and better,
and more serviceable for his generation and mankind. His centre could
not be doubted. Christ and Christ’s work, these were conspicuously the
objects about which his whole thought and being revolved. Cheerful,
pleasant, courteous, alive to all that was going on around him, utterly
free from all sourness and affectation, he exhibited, with wonderful
attractiveness, the simplicity, purity, dignity, and high and holy aims
of the minister of Christ. His prayer at family worship I shall never
forget. As he offered it, I could not but remark how the little child
and ripe saint met in those natural, lowly, reverent, and calmly mighty
supplications. It was the prayer of a man, between whose spirit and
God there was no haze, and who was as sure of answer as if voices from
heaven told him he was heard.”
In November last he engaged a berth in the _London_. There were many
who would have prolonged his stay in this country if possible, but
Mr. Draper’s wish was, now that he had accomplished the end for which
he had come to England, to return to the land of his adoption. He was
advised to go through Egypt, and indulge himself with a few weeks
journey through the Sinaitic peninsula and Palestine, but he seemed
even anxious now to return to his work at Melbourne. In one of his last
conversations with the Hon. W. A. McArthur, who had expressed some
regret at the shortness of his stay in England, Mr. Draper said, “Well,
I could spend another year in England very pleasantly, and should like
to do so if my conscience would allow me, but I feel I must get back to
my work.”
“Little,” says Mr. McArthur, “did he then imagine that his work on
earth was so nearly finished, and that he was so soon to enter into
the joy of his Lord; but if ‘that life be long which answers life’s
great end,’ then Mr. Draper has lived a long life; and having had the
pleasure of his acquaintance upwards of twenty years, I can testify
that his was a joyous, happy life, and that much of his happiness
consisted in seeing others happy, and endeavouring to make them so.”
And now we are in the track of the devoted Missionary, as he prepares
to go on board the vessel which was soon to meet with a disaster
terrible beyond many of the most grievous in the annals of shipwreck.
Now that the agony is over, and the faithful one at rest, we are
disposed to see a meaning in that dream--the story comes to us on
good authority--which, thrice repeated, bade him resist all the
importunities of friends, and go by the _London, and no other way_, and
we would not have had him disobedient to the voice.
To a friend in Dublin he wrote, a few days before he sailed--“The
steamer (the _London_) is a fine new vessel, having gone out but twice.
Last time she did the voyage in sixty days. We join her (D. V.) at
Plymouth on the 2nd January, and she will leave that port at six P.M.
on that day. We trust in God our Heavenly Father for protection on our
way, and delight in the thought that we shall be remembered by kind
friends when they bow at the throne of grace.”
And so the good, genial, loving man went away from the land he loved,
notwithstanding the associations of thirty years life in another
country; from his Hampshire home which was as dear to him now, though
approaching sixty years of age, as when he played there as a little
child; and from the newly done-up grave, where the dust of his parents
was sleeping. At the bidding of his Master, into whose hands he had
committed his entire life, he had moved from station to station in
Australia. He had never doubted the will of God in the successive
changes which had marked his colonial life. He believed that there was
a work for him to do in every place to which he was called, though he
went to station after station, not knowing the things which were to
befall him there. Shall we doubt now that a voice in richest mercy
towards others, summoned him to a station in which he was to do his
last here for the Master who loved him, and who had need of him indeed
for an awful service, but on which hung a reward and a blessing more
glorious than heart can ever dream of?
We believe that he had only been a few days out when he felt this, and
summoned all his energies rightly to discharge the duty his Master had
called him to, to make his last, his best. Serenely committing himself
to the keeping of a merciful and faithful Creator, Daniel Draper
perhaps never thought of his own wants, until he awoke up in glory, and
found with sweet surprise that he had none, that he was in the likeness
of his God, that he had exchanged corruption for incorruption, that
mortality had been swallowed up in the deep, deep sea, and that around
him were not shipwrecked mariners in their dripping garments and looks
of agony, but faces bright with joy, and forms radiant with the glory
of immortality.
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