WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

MARCH, 1868.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. ARTHUR MÄNUTT,

OF HALIFAX, NOVA-SCOTIA :

BY THE REV. CHARLES STEWART.

THE Missions of Methodism have been greatly honoured of God in the colonial dependencies of Great Britain, as well as in heathen lands. The ministers of this communion have followed the emigrant into the wilderness, and made the solitary place "glad" for him. They have reclaimed the wanderer, when distant from his home and far off from God; they have instructed the young, who otherwise would have grown up "wild as the untaught Indians' brood;" and they have trained tens of thousands for a blessed immortality. Hence, amidst the most adverse circumstances, vital godliness has not only been preserved from decay, but has often moulded the character of growing settlements, cities, and states. Nor is this all. Through the same instrumentality, the foundations of flourishing and influential churches have been laid, and the talent and material resources of those churches brought out, and employed in diffusing the light in the regions beyond them. Without in the least depreciating the self-denying labours of those excellent men who have entered this field from the home work, we may nevertheless be allowed to say that some of the most useful of the agents of the Wesleyan Missionary Society have been raised up in the colonies; and that the stability and the extensive influence of what are now known as the "Affiliated Conferences" of British Methodism, have been largely the result of the blessing of God on their faithful service. Of this class was the venerable subject of this memoir. Having experienced the saving grace of God through the teaching of the missionaries of the Wesleyan-Methodist Society, he was himself subsequently added to their number; and, after a course of extensive usefulness, departed this life in the full triumph of faith.

ARTHUR M'NUTT was born in Shelburne, Nova-Scotia, in the year 1796. His parents, who were of Scottish origin, had, in company with many compatriots, settled here on the cessation of the American war of Independence. They were Presbyterians by profession, and VOL. XIV.-FIFTH SERIES.

the father seems to have been peculiarly jealous of any interference with the creed and religious forms of his country. But, along the rugged shores on which Shelburne stands, the pioneers of Methodism had also found their way. Here the Rev. William Black, who is justly regarded as the founder of the Methodist Societies in this province, had preached the word of God with great success; here also, the magnanimous Freeborn Garrettson, at the solicitation of Dr. Coke, had travelled and toiled in the service of Christ. Among others, the mother of our departed friend was reached by the preaching of the Methodists, and was happily brought to a knowledge of salvation through the remission of sins. Thenceforth this people became her people, though her union with them caused her no small amount of hardship. She was soon subjected to a persecution, which, however petty in its overt acts, was the more bitter because it proceeded from the partner of her life, and was sustained by the remonstrances, and the undisguised contempt, of the ministers of the denomination in which she had been brought up. But seldom is evil wholly unattended with good. Mr. M'Nutt traced some of his earliest and deepest convictions of the things of God, to the "meekness and fear" with which his mother was always ready to "give an answer" to them that asked her-even in haughty defiance" a reason of the hope" that was in her. He was moreover of a most affectionate disposition, and secretly cherished the resolution of giving his heart to Christ, that so he might be qualified to soothe the spirit, and to take the part, of his afflicted parent.

After a time, he was sent with a brother to Lynn, United States, in order to prepare for the active duties of life. Here he was made a subject of heart-renewing grace. In a letter addressed to that brother many years afterwards, he makes pointed reference to this event. "You no doubt recollect the religious impressions which I received while we were at the academy at Lynn. It pleased God to show me that I was a sinner, and that as such I was unfit to inherit eternal life. A deep sense of the holiness of God, and of my own guilt and vileness, made me feel intense sorrow of heart. But while I perceived that I was a transgressor of the Divine law, and that in myself there was no ability to fulfil its commands, the Scripture pointed me to the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all sin.' I sought, and by faith found, the love of God. The light of His countenance broke upon my soul, and filled me with joy and peace in believing. My tongue, as well as my pen, would fail me to describe the blessedness of the condition into which I was thus brought."

He proceeds to relate how, even at this early period in his life, "it was strongly impressed upon his mind that he ought to go and work in the vineyard of the Lord;" but being deprived of the counsel of

"the guardian of his youth," he disobeyed "the heavenly calling," and so grieved the Holy Spirit that He took His departure from him. Soon after he was thrust upon the world; and, mingling with the gay and the thoughtless, he gradually lost his relish for spiritual things. On this relapse he did not fail in after years to reflect with pungent grief. Indeed, from the very time of his wandering from God, he seems to have been mercifully followed with the chastening of the Almighty. "It often appeared to me," he writes, "that the earth was cursed for my sake. The world would not prosper in my hand; all business that I attempted went against me." Meantime, the Spirit of grace strove earnestly with him, and providentially he was led to the town of Liverpool, Nova-Scotia, where, in the year 1820, an extraordinary visitation of Divine influence took place. He was then, with many others, powerfully convinced of sin, and with a contrite heart he again pleaded for salvation. Once more he received the Spirit of adoption, and with confidence cried, "Abba, Father." Taught by the sad as well as the joyous experience of former days, he now ran in the way of God's commandments; and those who had the best opportunity of observing his manner of life, could testify that, subsequently, his path of Christian devotedness shone with increasing lustre unto "the perfect day."

With a renewed sense of the Divine favour, his former conviction of a call to the ministry revived. But he neither rushed prematurely into a candidature for this sacred office, nor neglected those lesser means of usefulness which are open to every earnest believer. He sought to win the souls of his friends and neighbours to Christ. "Fruit," such as our fathers believed, and have taught us to believe, the Head of the Church will always grant to the labours of His own ambassadors, was given in connexion with his earlier efforts to do good; so that his way was speedily made plain to a wider sphere of action. At this period he came under the notice of the Rev. William Black, and was greatly encouraged by the friendship and counsel of that devoted servant of God,-benefits which he continued to enjoy during the remaining years of Mr. Black's life.

Along the eastern shores of Nova-Scotia, as well as in many of its inland districts, the population was, at that time, small, and widely scattered. The people, too, were generally poor. Their roads, where such existed, were indescribably bad; their habitations were exceedingly uncomfortable. Struggling, as most of them were, for the necessities of life, and largely cut off from the advantages of Enlightened society, these fishermen and settlers had usually but little ability, and still less inclination, to provide themselves with the public means of grace. Sabbath profanation, ignorance, and immorality consequently prevailed. Their case was one which demanded the compassion of the church, and the zeal and faith of

its best evangelists, as imperatively as that of any really idolatrous nation. To this field of labour our brother was providentially directed, and upon its toils and trials he entered with great selfdiffidence, but with a strong confidence in the

of grace and power the world's Redeemer. His was emphatically the labour of love. For the welfare of strangers, whose only claim upon him arose from their spiritual destitution, and from the fact that they were comprehended in the scheme of mercy through the atonement of the Lord Jesus, he surrendered the pleasing associations of home, and the high advantages of Christian communion, and chose a life of hardship, of penury, and of peril. As yet, he had obtained no ministerial status. Probably he could not even claim to be an accredited Local preacher. But he could read and pray, and exhort men to be reconciled to God. And this he did after the manner of the first missionaries of the Gospel, literally without purse and scrip, and with no promise of support but what the Word of God supplies. For several years, in all weathers, and on foot, he travelled from settlement to settlement, and from house to house, proclaiming an immediate and abundant salvation, urging its acceptance on his hearers, and wrestling with God in prayer on their behalf.

It is much to be regretted that of this period of his life, Mr. M'Nutt has left no written memorial. The only reference to it occurs in the before-mentioned letter to his brother, in which he speaks of his position as one of "indispensable duty," and of the long struggle which he had experienced between the conviction of that duty and his natural inclination,-a struggle, however, which issued in the resolution to "declare the righteousness and truth brought to light by the glorious Gospel." But enough is known to warrant the statement that his early efforts were attended with remarkable results. Not a few souls were awakened to a sense of sin, and were truly converted to God. Family worship was begun in many a house that had, until then, been without the voice of prayer. Classes were formed. Congregations were gathered, and some of our most flourishing Circuits became the fruit of his labours, or were strengthened and extended through his efforts. Of these it is sufficient to name Guysborough and River-John in Nova-Scotia, and Moncton, Hopewell, and Sussex-Vale in New-Brunswick. At the Jubilee services held in Moncton, the writer had the pleasure of hearing an intelligent eye-witness relate some of the particulars connected with an extensive revival of religion which took place under Mr. M'Nutt's ministrations. It was during the last year of his peculiar novitiate, and when he had been appointed by the DistrictMeeting to act as a travelling missionary, over a large extent of country. For a season he was without those manifestations of converting power which elsewhere he had been accustomed to witness,