THE

WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1849.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF MR. JOSEPH MOORCOCK,

OF HIGH-WYCOMBE:

BY THE REV. JOHN T. BARR.

Ir is always pleasing to trace the steps of a good man through this vale of tears; whether he has moved in the higher walks of life, or whether in the path of honest industry he has pursued the "noiseless tenor of his way." In presenting to the public the following brief sketch of Mr. Joseph Moorcock, whose sphere in life was of the latter description, I have laboured under considerable difficulty, owing to the limited materials with which I have been furnished. The memoir must necessarily be very imperfect, because he to whom it relates has left no document which refers to his personal history.

Joseph Moorcock was born in the parish of Wokingham, in Berkshire, June 2d, 1800. His parents, being in humble circumstances, were not able to give their son even the rudiments of education; so that he was compelled very early in life to endeavour to gain a subsistence by manual labour. His lot was cast among the wicked and profane. It is no wonder, therefore, that his youth should have been spent in ignorance of the "one thing needful." He was, however, naturally of an inquisitive turn of mind; thoughtful and quick in his apprehension of things; and having devoted many of his leisure hours to the acquirement of a little learning, he was enabled to read and write tolerably well. He soon began to study the sacred Scriptures, and felt increasing delight as he continued to peruse the pages of inspiration. By this means, and under the blessing of God, he was mercifully preserved from many vices, into which his ungodly companions might otherwise have seduced him.

In the autumn of 1818 he attended for the first time the Wesleyan chapel at Wokingham, where he heard the late Rev. John Waterhouse, who was then stationed in the Reading Circuit. Under the sermon Joseph was deeply affected, and a spirit of inquiry was awakened in him. He soon yielded to the force of conviction, and resolved to continue his attendance at the chapel.

One Sunday morning subsequently to this, hearing that a class was to meet at the close of the service, he felt a strong desire to be present,

VOL. V.-FOURTH SERIES.

B

and to know something of the nature of class-meetings; but not wishing to be intrusive, he lingered about the chapel for some time, and occasionally listened at the window, but could hear nothing distinctly. Some time afterwards he was invited to remain; and in the June quarter following received his first ticket from the hand of Mr. Waterhouse. Soon after he had thus connected himself with the Wesleyan society, he obtained a knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins. He was regular in his attendance upon all the means of grace, both on the Sunday and on the week-night, though the chapel was two miles from his residence.

Referring to his experience at this period, his brother states, in a letter that is now before me :- "After he became a Wesleyan, he seemed to breathe the spirit of prayer continually; and the Holy Spirit appeared to reign and rule in his heart as the Lord of every motion. I have often been with him at his bed-side, while he has been wrestling with God for promised blessings; and he has generally prevailed."

In the year 1821, he left his native village, and removed to Reading, where he obtained a situation in a grocer's shop. Here he found many openings for usefulness. He became a Prayer-Leader and a Sunday-school Teacher; and during the following year was admitted on the Circuit-Plan as a Local Preacher.

At Reading, he was also favoured with many opportunities for mental cultivation. He carefully perused some of the standard works in divinity, to which he had easy access; and by a constant and diligent application to the study of theology, his mind became enlarged, his views of Scripture truth clear and correct; and his sermons and conversation were alike profitable and edifying.

Mr. Moorcock continued in his situation for several years, and was much respected by his master. But that gentleman retiring from trade, he began to learn the chair-making business, in the employment of Mr. Jarvis, who was himself a member of the Methodist society.

About the year 1825, Mr. Jarvis removed to Lane-End, in the High-Wycombe Circuit. Being much attached to Joseph, both as a trustworthy servant and as a consistent follower of Christ, he took him to his new residence, and retained him in his service for many years. Here he formed an acquaintance with a pious female; and with the anticipation of enjoying much domestic happiness from an alliance with one who, he had reason to believe, was truly converted to God, he entered into the matrimonial state.

His leisure hours were still occupied in the pursuit of literary and theological acquirements; and with the zeal of one who had the spiritual interest of the Circuit at heart, he laboured abundantly for the good of souls. The consequence was, that he was made the honoured instrument of promoting a revival of pure religion in several places in the neighbourhood.

On leaving the service of Mr. Jarvis, he engaged himself to Mr. Harris, of West-Wycombe, principally as a traveller. The same zeal which had rendered his labours so successful, and the same uniformlyconsistent conduct which he had exhibited at Lane-End, still formed

the distinguishing features of his character; in addition to which, his amiable disposition and pious conversation soon gained him the esteem of the society at West-Wycombe.

He was a zealous advocate for the doctrine of universal redemption; being fully persuaded by the plain, indubitable testimony of Scripture, that Christ had died for all; and that therefore "whoever will" may be made the happy partakers of the benefits of his passion. His firm adherence to this fundamental principle of the Christian faith, as he believed it to be, exposed him on several occasions to the animadversions of those whose views of the extent of the atonement differed from his own. But the clearness of his arguments, and the multiplicity of Scripture proofs with which he maintained his point, gave him the decided advantage over his opponents; while the Christian spirit with which he answered their objections, did not fail to secure their personal esteem. The following occurrence will justify these remarks :— In the spring of 1844, the friends connected with the WesleyanMethodist Sunday-school at Haddenham, a few miles distant, invited him to preach their Anniversary Sermons. Arrangements were accordingly made for Wednesday, the 29th of May. His sermon in the afternoon was founded on the following text: "For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts ii. 39.) At the close of the service, a tea-meeting was announced to be held in the chapel for the accommodation of the friends who had assembled in large numbers from the neighbouring villages. A gentleman who had entered the chapel when more than two-thirds of the sermon had been delivered, sat down in one of the pews, for the purpose of taking tea. The company had scarcely finished their repast, when this gentleman commenced a public controversy, by first disputing the correctness of the sentiments advanced by Mr. Moorcock; and then, proceeding in the line of argument pursued by the ultra-Calvinists to support their favourite theory, he attempted to convince the company that the doctrines which had been preached to them had no foundation in Scripture. But this, of course, was only an attempt. He was not aware, perhaps, of the strength of the champion with whom he had to contend, and to whom he had thus incautiously thrown down the gauntlet. The result was, Mr. Moorcock obtained signal triumph over his antagonist, in defending the truths which he had been advocating in the pulpit.

But the time for discussion was very limited; (for he had to preach again in the evening;) and, as he considered the occasion as not being a proper one for religious controversy, he resolved to express his thoughts more largely in a letter to the same gentleman, with a view to publication. After much labour, he accomplished his task; and produced a manuscript containing upwards of a hundred pages, closely written on folio paper. The manuscript is now in my possession, according to his own expressed wish before going to Liverpool. I have perused it with much pleasure and profit. But I do not think its publication, at this late period, would answer any

valuable end, for the following reasons:-First, Though the doctrine of universal redemption is elucidated in the clearest manner, and the sentiments are expressed in language both chaste and comprehensive, there is nothing new in the mode of argumentation. Secondly, The greater part of the manuscript consists of extracts from authors whose works are already widely circulated throughout the country.

It will be gratifying, however, to the reader of this memoir, to insert a few passages which I have selected for that purpose. He will then have an opportunity of judging of Mr. Moorcock's ability in polemical disquisition, and of his amiable spirit in answering an opponent.

The following is from the commencement of his letter:

"You will perhaps deem it an unwarrantable liberty on my part that I address you in this public manner; and you may be disposed to think, that, amidst the multitude of books of all kinds and sizes, with which our land abounds, there was no demand for such a publication; and even if there were, that a humble individual like myself should have been the last to make such an attempt. I should in all probability have coincided with you in that opinion, but for the circumstances that took place in the Wesleyan chapel at Haddenham, on the 29th of May, 1844, when I had the honour of meeting you there. The part which you were pleased to take on that occasion has, I think, superseded the necessity of any further apology, and fully justifies me in making a few remarks.

"I will briefly refer, in the outset, to the circumstances under which I was assailed on that occasion. You entered the chapel just before the close of the sermon. You were not, therefore, very competent to judge of it as a whole. You were in a chapel where you were not invested with any authority, either as an office-bearer or a member of the society. You were not even a regular hearer. You were at a meeting designed to be of a purely social character. But that object was defeated by the course you pursued. The meeting was also connected with the interests of the Sunday-school; and it is more than probable some remarks might have been made on the great subject of education, which would have proved generally interesting. This was also set aside. In addition to this, I had not the least intimation of anything occurring to disturb the harmony that prevailed. You had determined on your plan of action before-hand, and were prepared for the battle. This contest did not arise out of any conversation that took place. I had made no attack in the sermon on parties who entertained a different view of the passage in question. I had made no remark on the different opinions that prevailed on the subject. I had not so much as intimated that a contrary opinion was entertained at all. When I call these circumstances to mind, with several others which might be mentioned, and, among the rest, that I was a stranger, in a strange place, I trust I shall not be charged with a want of courtesy, if I consider your attack somewhat unwarrantable."

The next extract refers to the subject which gave rise to the debate in the chapel:

"With regard to the ground of dispute, you raised an objection to

my comment on the last clause of the text; namely, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.'

"My views of the clause were as follows: Wherever the Gospel goes, it calls men; and wherever the Gospel goes and calls men, it carries the promise of the Holy Ghost with it.' You denied that this was the sense of the passage; and contended that the true sense was, that the promise is to them, and them only, who are called with an effectual calling.

"In support of your position, you read the text with peculiar and repeated emphasis on the word 'even,' and which was to form your main foundation. You then said, 'The word even is in italics; and therefore I consider it to mean a great deal.' Now the fact is, as I then told

you, it means just nothing at all. It is generally known, that those words in the Bible which are printed in italic characters, are thus distinguished to show that they are supplied by the translators; and have no existence in the original.

"It is a great pity, Sir, that you, with all your professed literary attainments, should not have known this; that you should have mistaken it for emphasis, and have made it the ground on which to rest a doctrinal debate. This was certainly an unhappy step in advance towards biblical criticism!

"You also said, If the promise is to all to whom the Gospel goes, how is it that they do not all receive it? All the promises of God are Yea and Amen, in Christ Jesus; not one of them shall fail.'

But

"That the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus, and that none of them can ever fail on His part, is a glorious truth. that they are Yea and Amen in the fallible creature, to whom they are made, is possibly another question. You will perhaps remember, that I illustrated this point by a simple case, thus: Suppose I were in pecuniary distress, and Mr. P.,* knowing this, should promise, that if I would meet him at Risborough,† he would afford me assistance. If, from carelessness, I neglected to go, or if, from stubbornness, I should say, 'I will not accept it at his hands;' or if the pride of my foolish heart would not suffer me to stoop to accept such a favour from him, I should not, of course, receive it. Mr. P. was there with his gift; but I was not there to receive it. There was no failure of promise on his part; the failure was with me. Hence the reason why I do not receive the gift, though the promise is to me. So with regard to the promises of God. He deals with men as rational beings and free agents; not as mere machines. He places his blessings within their reach, but does not force them upon any man.

'Heaven wills our happiness, allows our doom;
Invites us ardently, but not compels.'-YOUNG.

Therefore, if man through carelessness neglects, or through stubbornness refuses, or through pride will not stoop to receive, the

"Mr. P. is a gentleman of Haddenham, who was sitting with us in the same pew at the time of the discussion."

"Risborough is a small town, about midway between Haddenham and WestWycombe."