Mr. Venn begins to attract notice--Revival of Religion
in the Established Church and among the Methodists--By
whom first commenced--Mr. Venn’s Acquaintance with Mr.
Broughton--Mr. Broughton one of the original Methodists--Dr.
Haweis--Mr. Law--Illness of Mr. Venn--Accompanies Mr.
Whitefield to Bristol--Remains with Lady Huntingdon at
Clifton--Letter from Mr. Whitefield--Letter to Mr. Venn
from Lady Huntingdon--Mr. Whitefield’s Letter to Mr.
Venn--Oxford Students--Dr. Haweis--Mr. Whitefield’s Letter
to Dr. Haweis--Convicts--Preaching to the Nobility at Lady
Huntingdon’s--Handel--Giardini--Musical Composers.
That faithful and able servant of our Lord, the Rev. Henry Venn, had
now commenced his useful ministry as curate of Clapham, and served
three lectureships in the city. At Clapham he became intimately
acquainted with the late excellent and benevolent John Thornton, Esq.,
then a young man of deep piety, and rising rapidly into notice. At his
house Mr. Venn had many opportunities of meeting Lady Huntingdon and
Mr. Whitefield, whose ardent and disinterested zeal, so successfully
employed in the service of their great Master, conduced to lead him to
clearer views of divine truth. Mr. Whitefield frequently expounded at
Mr. Thornton’s to overflowing assemblies, and on such occasions Mr.
Venn was always present. To Miss Gideon, the friend and correspondent
of Mr. Venn, Mr. Whitefield writes:--“At both ends of the town the word
runs and is glorified. The champions in the Church go on like sons
of Thunder. I am to be at Clapham this evening: Mr. Venn will gladly
embrace the first opportunity. May it be a Bethel!”
The venerable names of Romaine, Venn, Adams, Walker (of Truro), and
others, will long be remembered as among the early and honoured
instruments employed by Almighty God to rouse a slumbering Church from
its lethargy, and to revive the cause of vital religion at a period
when the doctrines of the Reformation were almost forgotten, and
Christianity had become little better than a name.
The unquestionable excellence of their character, and the extent of
their usefulness, add greatly to the importance of their history; and
the more we venerate and admire their devotedness to God, the more
desirous we become to learn something of the commencement and progress
of the work of divine grace upon their minds, and the special dealings
of Providence in leading them to spheres of usefulness.
God sends by whom he will send; but it has been the infirmity even
of good men, and I fear it has not ceased to be so, to resemble the
people whose cry was, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord
are we!” For, while all cordially unite in ascribing the glory of all
good to God, there is no small contention among the different sections
of the Christian Church for the honour of the instruments employed
in the work. It ought, however, to be regarded as a subject of very
inferior consideration, who, amongst those whom the great Head of the
Church was pleased to employ and crown with success, were first in the
field, or most honoured by their great Master.
Thus in the lives of Walker and Venn, as well as in other publications,
it is attempted to be shown that the revival of vital religion in the
Established Church within the last century is not to be attributed to
the instrumentality of the great Methodist leaders, and the eminently
devoted men who laboured with them; but it is to be regarded as a
distinct and separate dispensation of divine grace.
The biographers of Venn, Walker, and other eminent ministers, appear
to feel for the honour of the Church, and are anxious to free her
from the reproach of Methodism; but these departed worthies were
faithful ministers of the Church of England, yet by their labours a
great measure of what is called Methodism was diffused and maintained
within the pale of the Church. That the effects of the labours of Mr.
Whitefield, the Wesleys, and their coadjutors, were “confined to their
own followers,” and only “manifested in the extension of Methodism,”
is assuredly a great mistake, and proves the writer to be but very
imperfectly acquainted with the genius and history of Methodism.
It is well known that those men of God were sincere as well as avowed
members and ministers of the Church of England. They were educated
within her pale, and were zealously devoted to her service; and it
was not until insuperable difficulties were opposed to their labours
in the Establishment that they were constrained to go forth into the
highways and hedges to call sinners to repentance. The effects of their
ministry soon attested its divine authority, and furnished irresistible
evidence that they had not mistaken the call of God. The mere forms of
ecclesiastical authority must not be pleaded against the great object
and design of the Christian ministry itself; and, with all respect for
the Establishment, it is to be regarded only as in the order of means,
and must be estimated according to its adaptation to accomplish its
great end--the salvation of men.
At the period referred to, as it is justly observed by Dr. Haweis,
“the nation was sunk down into corruption, and the Church erected a
feeble barrier against the fashionable pursuits. The life and power
of godliness fell to a very low standard, and only here and there an
individual cleaved to the faith once delivered to the saints, and dared
to be singular.” Speaking of the first instruments of the revival of
vital Christianity among us, the Doctor adds--“By the labours of these
indefatigable men, a flood of Gospel light broke upon the nation. At
first they were wholly confined to the Church of England, as their
attachment to it by education was strong; and had they been fixed in
any settled station, they had not improbably lived and died good men,
useful men, but unnoticed and unknown. A series of providences had
designed them for far greater and more extensive usefulness.”[130]
To this unexceptionable testimony we may add that of the late Mr.
Hall:--
“Such was the situation of things when Whitefield and Wesley
made their appearance, who, whatever failings the severest
criticism can discover in their character, will be hailed by
posterity as the second Reformers of England. Nothing was
farther from the views of these excellent men than to innovate
on the established religion of their country; their sole aim was
to recall the people to the good old way, and to imprint the
doctrine of the Articles and Homilies on the spirits of men. But
this doctrine had been so long a dead letter, and so completely
obliterated from the mind by contrary instruction, that the
attempt to revive it met with all the opposition that innovation
is sure to encounter, in addition to what naturally results from
the nature of the doctrine itself, which has to contend with the
whole force of human corruption. The revival of the _old_
appeared like the introduction of a _new_ religion; and
the hostility it excited was less sanguinary, but scarcely less
virulent, than that which signalized the first publication of
Christianity. The Gospel of Christ, or that system of truth
which was laid at the foundation of the Reformation, has since
made rapid advances, and in every step of its progress has
sustained the most furious assaults.”
If, in its commencement, Methodism meant anything definite, it meant
neither more nor less than Christianity in its life and power. The
term, from the beginning, was applied not so much to a peculiar system,
as to a class of character. It was invariably employed to designate
all that was sincere and spiritual in religion. It thus became the
badge of serious piety and Christian zeal wherever they appeared. Mr.
Whitefield and the Wesleys, by their incessant itinerancy, obtained a
sort of ubiquity in the land, and the fruit of their labours was almost
everywhere visible. He must, therefore, be a bold man who will maintain
that their instrumentality contributed little or nothing to the revival
of religion in the Church. Many of the more pious of the clergy lived
among the disciples of Methodism, and some of them belonged to
Methodist families, and were the personal friends of the great leaders
of both Connexions.
If what God has wrought be but duly acknowledged, we are not at all
anxious to determine the respective claims of the first instruments;
nor would we wish to deprive the respected clergy of the Establishment
of what they seem to value so highly--the privilege of being perfectly
independent of the instrumentality of Methodism. Whether there were,
as is affirmed, “two kindred, but separate and independent, streams of
light,” proceeding from the same source, but “flowing in two distinct
channels,” one descending on the Methodists, and the other upon the
Church; or whether the heavenly influence is to be regarded as forming
one general intervention of divine mercy for the revival and spread
of vital religion throughout the land, we leave to the judgment of
the reader. Whatever interest may be attached to the distinction by
sectarian prejudice, we cannot persuade ourselves that its importance
is recognized either by the Head of the Church, or by those great and
good men whom He so signally honoured. They have long since cast their
crowns at the feet of Him to whom they were indebted for the whole of
their success, and who alone caused them to “triumph in Christ,” in
making “manifest the savour of his knowledge by them in every place.”
One thing, however, is too well known to admit, of dispute--that
previous to the appearance of the Messrs. Wesley and Whitefield, and
the extraordinary effects produced by their ministry, the public
attention had in no degree been called to any description of ministers
in the Establishment who inculcated the evangelical doctrines and
excited observation by the fruit of their labours. It was not until
several years after the former had become extensively known, both by
their preaching and writings, that a few individuals of the clergy
were recognized as having embraced similar sentiments, and as being
zealously and successfully employed in calling sinners to repentance.
How far it may please God to communicate the light of his truth, or the
influence of his grace, by particular means or instruments, cannot be
determined by man. We venture to believe that the water of life retains
its virtue by whatever channel it may be communicated.
In the darkest times that the Church of England has known, when the
light of evangelical truth seemed nearly extinguished, the Bible
exhibited the same divine truths as at present: the Articles, the
Liturgy, and the Homilies contained the same spiritual doctrines, and
all that beauty and excellence which have been since found in them;
and yet the land continued to be overspread with the shadow of death,
until it pleased God to raise up living witnesses, clothed with his
own power, and to send them forth to proclaim to sinners the Gospel of
salvation, He himself giving “testimony to the word of his grace.”
Mr. Venn, when he ceased to reside in College, accepted the curacy of
a Mr. Langley, who held the livings of St. Matthew, Friday-street,
London, and West Horsley, near Guildford, in Surrey. His duty was to
serve the Church in London during part of the summer, and to reside
the remainder of the year at Horsley. His duties in London brought
him in contact with the Rev. Bryan Broughton, Secretary to the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and this was probably one
of the most important events of his life; for Mr. Broughton was one
of the original band of Methodists at Oxford, and the correspondent,
associate, and fellow-labourer of Mr. Whitefield and the Wesleys: and
it is extremely probable that he was one of the first, if not the
very first, who directed the attention of Mr. Venn to the important
concerns of eternity. About the same time Mr. Law’s “Serious Call” made
a deep and lasting impression on his mind. He read and read again this
pleasing and most unanswerable advocate for the reasonableness and
dignity of a life of holiness; and set himself diligently to conform
to his prescriptions of rigid weekly fastings and prayer, and keeping
a daily journal of his thoughts, words, and deeds. Thus impressed with
Mr. Law’s “Call,” we need not say with what eagerness he seized on his
“Spirit of Prayer” as soon as it appeared; but his disappointment was
equal to his ardour, when he found the atonement of Christ, of which he
had now begun to feel his need, was degraded into annihilation, and a
something crucified within represented as the only satisfaction due for
sin.
At this critical period a friend from Oxford, the late venerable Dr.
Haweis, whom he had pressed to spend some time with him at Clapham,
visited him, and commenced a friendship and correspondence that ceased
only with life. As the Doctor was a convert of that revered man, Mr.
Walker, of Truro, he was firmly established in the principles of free
grace, now generally termed Calvinistic. Hence naturally arose much
candid investigation of the subject: both were conscious they sincerely
meant the glory of God and the salvation of men’s souls; both were
active labourers in the vineyard, and both esteemed the religion of the
heart as only fundamental; yet both being well informed, their friendly
disputes entered deeply into the consideration of the Scriptures on
the subject, without any immediate considerable change of sentiment.
“Allow me, my dear Haweis (said Mr. Venn), to be something more than
a stone.” The manner in which he canvassed the subject in debate
manifested no aversion to receive the divine truth as far as he
discovered it. He searched the Scriptures daily if those things were
so, and every day grew more disposed to acknowledge the impotence and
guilt of man, and the sovereignty of the grace of God. He set himself
vigorously to preach what he believed, which he did four or five times
a week at his cure and lectureships, besides his private exhortations
among his friends. His ministry was much attended and greatly blessed,
many calling him FATHER, as being begotten by him in the
Gospel. Though he generally preached written sermons, yet he first
perhaps, of any of the Church ministers of that day, broke through the
bondage of reading, and commenced a free address to the conscience. In
this he preceded Mr. Romaine, whose name and ministry about the same
time attracted more general notice.
Mr. Venn had not been long at Clapham before he was attacked by a
severe illness, which incapacitated him for duty for several months.
This, however, was a most useful season to him. He had time to reflect
upon his principles and conduct; and he used to observe, that after
that period he was no longer able to preach the sermons which he
had previously composed. His views of eternal things had now become
clearer--his meditations on the attributes of God more profound--his
views of the greatness of the salvation of Christ more distinct;
and the whole of his religion had received that tincture of more
elevated devotion which rendered his conversation and his preaching
doubly instructive. Just at this period Mr. Whitefield induced Mr.
Venn to accompany him and Mr. Madan on a preaching excursion into
Gloucestershire. At Bristol immense crowds attended whenever they
proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation. “Seven Gospel ministers
(says Mr. Whitefield) were together at Bristol when the Counsellor
(Mr. Madan) preached.” During Mr. Venn’s stay in Gloucestershire he
was hospitably entertained at Lady Huntingdon’s residence at Clifton.
Mr. Madan and Mr. Howel Davies, then supplying the Tabernacle at
Bristol, were likewise at her Ladyship’s house. The conversation of
Lady Huntingdon, and those devoted men by whom she was surrounded, was
attended with the happiest results to Mr. Venn. The light of divine
truth burst through the darkness in which his mind had been involved,
and he now strenuously laboured to extend, by every means in his
power, the knowledge which had been imparted to him. The salvation of
souls excited his watchfulness, his prayers, and his zeal; and in his
whole life he was an “epistle of Christ, known and read of all men.”
Governed by a disinterested concern for the everlasting welfare of the
souls committed to his charge, he was “instant in season, and out of
season; reproving, rebuking, and exhorting, with all long-suffering and
gentleness”--
“And, as a bird each fond endearment tries
To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies,
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay,
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.”
In a letter to Lady Huntingdon, written at this time, Mr. Whitefield
says:--
“The worthy Venn is valiant for the truth--a son of Thunder.
He labours abundantly, and his ministry has been owned of the
Lord in the conversion of sinners. Thanks be to God for such
an instrument as this to strengthen our hands! I know the
intelligence will rejoice your Ladyship. Your exertions in
bringing him to a clearer knowledge of the everlasting Gospel
have indeed been blessed. He owes your Ladyship much, under God,
and I believe his whole soul is gratitude to the Divine Author
of his mercies, and to you, the honoured instrument in leading
him to the fountain of truth.”
That the noble Countess was the instrument of much good to Mr. Venn is
obvious from Mr. Whitefield’s letter; and is, moreover, confirmed by an
extract from one addressed by her Ladyship to Mr. Venn, soon after his
return to his charge at Clapham. After remonstrating with him on the
tenor of some of his discourses, her Ladyship adds:--
“O, my friend! we can make no atonement to a violated law--we
have no inward holiness of our own--the Lord Jesus Christ
is the Lord our Righteousness. Cling not to such beggarly
elements--such filthy rags--mere cobwebs of Pharisiacal
pride--but look to Him who hath wrought out a perfect
righteousness for his people. You find it a hard task to come
naked and miserable to Christ--to come divested of every
recommendation but that of abject wretchedness and misery, and
receive from the outstretched hand of our Divine Emmanuel the
riches, the superabounding riches of redeeming grace. But if you
come at all, you must come thus; and, like the dying thief, the
cry of your heart must be, ‘_Lord, remember me_.’ There
must be no conditions--Christ, and _Christ alone_, must
be the only Mediator between God and sinful men--no miserable
performances can be placed between the sinner and the Saviour.
Let the eye of faith ever be directed to the Lord Jesus Christ;
and I beseech him to bring every thought of your heart into
captivity to the obedience of our great High Priest.
“And now, my dear friend, no longer let false doctrine disgrace
your pulpit. Preach Christ crucified as the only foundation of
the sinner’s hope. Preach him as the Author and Finisher, as
well as the sole object of faith--that faith which is the gift
of God. Exhort Christless, impenitent sinners to fly to this
city of refuge--to look to him who is exalted as a Prince and a
Saviour, to give repentance and the remission of sins. Go on
thus, and may your bow abide in strength! Be bold--be firm--be
decisive. Let Christ be the Alpha and Omega of all you advance
in your addresses to your fellow-men. Leave the consequences
with your Divine Master. He will be with his faithful ministers
to the end of time. May his gracious benediction rest upon your
labours, and may you be blessed to the conversion of very many,
who shall be your joy and crown of rejoicing in the great day
when the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall appear.”
About this period considerable attention was paid to the subject of
religion by many students in the University of Oxford. Lady Huntingdon,
in a letter to Mr. Stillingfleet, mentions prayer meetings as very
common among the students. “I am really rejoiced (said her Ladyship)
that so many at the Universities are determined to be on the Lord’s
side. May they be kept faithful and steady!” Mr. Whitefield likewise
takes notice of the awakening at Oxford in particular: “Many (says he)
in Oxford are awakened to the knowledge of the truth;” and again, “Many
students at Oxford are earnestly learning Christ.”
Amongst the number of those who stood forth in the midst of abounding
reproach and hostility, and bore a fearless and faithful testimony
to the grace and atonement of the Redeemer, was the late venerable
Dr. Haweis, who had entered the University as a student and gentleman
commoner of Christ Church, but afterwards removed to Magdalene Hall.
Early in life he was awakened under the powerful ministry of that good
man, Mr. Walker, of Truro. Mr. Whitefield, hearing of the zeal and
the success attending his labours at Oxford, and accidentally seeing
a letter of his to a correspondent at Bristol, determined to write to
him, and endeavour to strengthen his hands in the great cause.
The following letter contains some useful hints to young ministers and
candidates for the ministry; and is peculiarly valuable as having been
addressed to one who, for considerably more than half a century after,
was destined by the Great Head of the Church to bear a fearless and
faithful testimony to the atonement and grace of the Redeemer, before a
proud, self-righteous, and gainsaying world:--
“To the Rev. Mr. Haweis, ”Bristol, May 20, 1756.
“My very dear Sir--For so I must address myself, having had you
in a peculiar manner upon my heart ever since I saw and read
a letter that came from you some months ago. It bespoke the
language of a heart devoted to the ever-living, ever-lovely
Jesus. Mrs. Bevan confirmed me in this opinion yesterday, and
withal told me she believed you would be glad of a line from me,
who am indeed less than the least of all saints, but willing,
if I know anything of my own heart, to spend and be spent for
the good of souls. They are redeemed by the blood of Jesus,
whose cross, blessed be his name, hath been made delightful
to me for some years. I thank God that I am cast out for my
Master’s sake. Indeed, my very dear Sir, it is preferable to all
other preferment whatsoever; it is the way to the crown. Glory
be to God that there are some young champions coming forth;
methinks I could now sing my _nunc dimittis_ with triumph
and joy. Though I decrease, may you, my very dear Sir, increase!
O that you may be kept from conferring with flesh and blood! O
that you may be owned and blessed of God! I believe you will,
and never more so than when you are reviled and despised by
man. It is a fatal mistake to think we must keep our characters
in order to be good; this is called _prudence_--in most,
I fear, it is _trimming_. Honesty I find always to be the
best policy. Them who honour Jesus, he will honour. Even in
this world, if we confess him, his truth, and his people, we
shall receive a hundred-fold. To lose all in this respect is to
find all. But whither am I going? Excuse, my very dear Sir, the
overflowings of a heart that loves you dearly for the glorious
Redeemer’s sake. I am here preaching his cross, and expect to
stay over Sunday. Next week I have thoughts of being at Bath
and Westbury. I lead a pilgrim life--you will pray that I may
have a pilgrim heart. Ere long I hope my heavenly Father will
take me home. I am ambitious; I want to sit upon a throne. Jesus
hath purchased and provided a throne in heaven for me. That you
may have an exalted place at his right hand is and shall be
the earnest prayer of, reverend and very dear Sir, yours most
affectionately in our common Lord,
“G. WHITEFIELD.”
Lady Huntingdon had interested herself about this time in the case
of an unhappy youth, belonging to an honourable family, who had
been guilty of some serious breach of the law, and had obtained his
Majesty’s pardon, through the benevolent exertions of her Ladyship.
This young man appears to have been benefitted by the mercy which had
been extended to him, and the advice which her Ladyship had kindly
given him. “As I thought it would give your Ladyship satisfaction (says
Mr. Whitefield), I herein enclose the copies of two letters sent from
the condemned youth in whose behalf your Ladyship hath interposed.” Her
liberality was likewise extended to some convicts, whom Mr. Whitefield
felt much interested about. On the 2nd of March, 1757, we find him
writing thus to her Ladyship:--
“Ever-honoured Madam--A few days ago I received the kind
benefaction for the unhappy convicts. Not doubting of success, I
had advanced some guineas, which, with what hath been procured
from other hands, hath bought both their liberties, and they
are provided for on the other side of the water; just now, I
believe, they are under sail. O that he, who I suppose will now
receive a pardon, was alike favoured! But not many mighty, not
many noble, are called. I hope this will not find your Ladyship
ill of the gout. May the Lord Jesus bear all your sickness,
and heal all your infirmities, both of body and soul! I am
sensibly touched when anything affects your Ladyship; gratitude
constrains to this. What shall I render unto the Lord for all
his mercies? I would preach for him, if I could, a hundred times
a day. Surely such a worthless worm was never honoured to speak
for the Redeemer before. Your Ladyship will excuse me, I must
away, and give a little vent to the heart of, ever-honoured
Madam, your Ladyship’s most dutiful, obliged, and ready servant,
for Christ’s sake,
“G. WHITEFIELD.”
Lady Huntingdon now arrived in London with her family, and soon opened
her house, twice every week, for the preaching of the Gospel. Messrs.
Romaine, Madan, and Venn principally officiated at her Ladyship’s
at that time. “I rejoice (says Mr. Whitefield) in the increase of
your Ladyship’s spiritual routs. I can guess at the consolation such
uncommon scenes must afford to your Ladyship’s new-born soul. No wonder
you are distressed from other quarters. Indeed, my most noble and
ever-honoured patroness, thus it must be. Christ’s witnesses must be
purged at home. Inward domestic trials fit for outward public work.
Nature recoils, when constrained to take the cross, and it may be from
a near and dear relation’s hand; but infinite wisdom knows what is
best.”
Amongst the great and fashionable who attended at Lady Huntingdon’s
house during the season we find the names of many who made some figure
in the circles of the great; as the Duchess of Bedford, Duchess of
Grafton, Lady Jane Scott, Lord and Lady Dacre, Mr. and Lady Anne
Connolly, Lady Elizabeth Keppel, Lady Betty Waldegrave, Lady Coventry,
Lord Weymouth, Lord Tavistock, Lady Charlotte Edwin, Duchess of
Hamilton, Duchess of Richmond, Lady Ailesbury, Lord and Lady Hertford,
Lady Townshend, Lord Trafford, Lord Northampton, Lady Hervey, Lady
Pembroke, Lady Northumberland, Lady Rebecca Paulet, Lord Edgecumbe,
Lord Lyttleton, Mrs. Shirley, mother of the unfortunate Lord Ferrers,
&c. &c. &c. Lady Essex and Mrs. Charles Yorke, both of whom had
frequently attended at her Ladyship’s house, died rather suddenly,
at this time, of sore throats. The circumstance caused considerable
sensation amongst a numerous circle, and the awful providence was
improved by Mr. Whitefield on his arrival in London. Lady Thanet’s
decease had preceded that of Lady Essex and Mrs. Yorke. When Lady
Huntingdon heard of her illness, she sent to offer her to come and
prepare her for the last solemn hour: but Lady Thanet sent her word
it was in vain, for she could neither be prepared to live or die. Her
great care upon her death-bed was the fear of being buried alive; to
prevent which she ordered herself not to be taken out of her bed for
twelve days.
The acquaintance which Lady Huntingdon had formed in early life with
the celebrated Handel, after being suspended for some considerable
number of years, was renewed about this time. Handel now found himself
fast declining, and considered his recovery as hopeless. The loss
of his sight and the prospect of his approaching dissolution made a
great change in his temper and general behaviour. He became a man of
blameless morals, and throughout his after-life manifested a deep
sense of religion. In conversation he would frequently speak of the
pleasure he had experienced in setting the Scriptures to music, and
how much some of the sublime passages of the Psalms had contributed to
his comfort and satisfaction. And now, when he found himself drawing
near to the close of his mortal state, those sentiments were improved
into solid and rational piety, attended by a calm and undisturbed
mind. The course of his life was regular and uniform. For some years
after his arrival in England his time was divided between study and
practice--that is to say, betwixt composing pieces of music, and
conducting concerts at the Duke of Rutland’s, the Earl of Burlington’s,
the Earl of Huntingdon’s, and the houses of others of the nobility who
were patrons of music and his friends. His little foibles, of which his
biographers have made much, appear to have been the incidental errors
of his time and nation.[131]
Not long before his death Lady Huntingdon saw him, at his particular
request. “I have had a most pleasing interview (says her Ladyship) with
Handel--an interview which I shall not soon forget. He is now old,
and at the close of his long career; yet he is not dismayed at the
prospect before him. Blessed be God for the comforts and consolations
which the Gospel affords in every situation, and in every time of our
need! Mr. Madan has been with him often, and he seems much attached
to him.” Handel died in April, 1759. Over the place of his interment,
in Westminster Abbey, was erected a monument, designed and executed
by Roubilliac, representing him at full length, in an erect posture,
having a scroll in his hand, inscribed--“I know that my Redeemer
liveth,” with the notes to which these words are set in “The Messiah.”
With most of the eminent musicians of her time Lady Huntingdon was well
acquainted. Giardini, whose great taste, hand, and style in playing on
the violin, procured him universal admiration, was a great favourite of
her Ladyship’s. Lady Gertrude Hotham, and Lady Chesterfield, who was
esteemed one of the first private musicians of her day, gave occasional
concerts of sacred music at their residences; and there Giardini’s
performance on the violin, in which, at that time, he excelled every
other master in Europe, was heard with the most rapturous applause,
and equally astonished and delighted all his auditors. At Lady
Huntingdon’s request he composed a few tunes to some of the hymns used
in her chapels; and this circumstance, becoming public, led Horace
Walpole to say--“It will be a great acquisition to the Methodist
sect to have their hymns set by Giardini.” Some time after, he was
recommended by Lady Huntingdon to the protection and patronage of
Sir William Hamilton, whom he accompanied to Naples. About the same
period there was another Italian musical composer and writer, with a
name very similar, Tomaso Giordani, with whom Lady Huntingdon was also
acquainted, and who resided so many years in London, that he was almost
as well acquainted with the English language and English style of music
as any individual of his time. He likewise composed some hymn tunes,
and particularly the well-known air called “Cambridge,” adapted to the
words--“Father, how wide thy glory shines!” &c., in Lady Huntingdon’s
collection. Mr. Kent, of Winchester, was also well known to Lady
Huntingdon, Mr. Whitefield, and the Wesleys. As a composer of sacred
music, he followed closely the style of Dr. Croft; and few persons have
succeeded better than he in that due intermixture of harmony and melody
which renders this species of music interesting both to the learned and
unlearned auditors. He composed some popular anthems and hymn tunes,
which have long been in use amongst the Methodists: few anthems have
obtained more celebrity than--“O Lord, our Governor,” “My song shall be
of mercy,” and “Hear my prayer.”
Two of the sons of Mr. Charles Wesley afforded a very early indication
of musical genius. Lady Huntingdon was so well pleased with the eldest,
Charles, that she kindly offered her interest with Dr. Boyce to get
him admitted among the King’s boys. He was introduced by her Ladyship
to two eminent musicians of that day, Mr. Stanley and Dr. Morgan,
both of whom were extremely kind to him, particularly the latter, who
frequently entertained him by playing on the harpsichord. Several years
after, Charles Wesley published a set of six hymn tunes, one of which,
adapted to the words, “In Christ my treasure’s all contained,” was
composed at the request of Lady Huntingdon. This little publication
also included the well-known hymn by his father on the death of Mr.
Whitefield, set to music by Dr. Boyce, composer to his Majesty George
III.