WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE. SEPTEMBER, 1874. MEMOIR OF MR. JAMES HEALD, BY THE REV. WILLIAM B. POPE. Or the many names of Methodist laymen which have lately dropped from among the living, none has left a more sensible blank than that of JAMES HEALD, of Parr's Wood. His personal excellence, his social position, his peculiar gifts, his manifold representative character, his eminent services to Methodism, and the long term of those services, all conspired to mark him out among his brethren. Without disparagement to any who are gone, or who still live, his death removed the foremost man of our more recent history. And those who honoured him while he remained, and mourn his departure, naturally desire that some memorial of his religious and useful course should be preserved. But Mr. Heald himself seems not to have had any such memorial in his thoughts. He has made no provision of any kind for his biography. Either he never kept a diary, or, if he kept any, it has been carefully suppressed; for there are not three lines extant in his handwriting which have this kind of reference to himself. This is a circumstance for which it would be hard to find a parallel. And in the case of one who was so intimately connected with the secret and public history of every Methodist movement of the last forty years, who enjoyed the friendship of some of the greatest men in the Connexion, who entertained them so much, and in so unreserved a manner, in his own house, and who, in addition to this, was a member of the Legislature during some eventful sessions, it is also matter of regret. Mr. Heald's recorded judgments would have been more valuable than those of most men. He was known indeed to disapprove of autobiographies in general, and especially of those sealed up for posthumous service; but it may be fairly said that he has gone to the opposite extreme. Apart from the public loss, it is a special disadvantage to any writer of his Memoir. It has reduced me to depend almost entirely upon such family reminiscences as may be gathered up, common report, and the results of my own respectful observance during the last seven years. Mr. Heald's ancestry may be traced to Derbyshire. His father, James Heald, the son also of James Heald,-came from Chinley to VOL. XX.-FIFTH SERIES. 3 D Manchester, where he engaged, with some others, in calico-printing. In due time he removed with the fruits of his labours to Portwood, near Stockport, and set up a business of his own, which rapidly prospered. He subsequently purchased property at Waterside, where he was the means of introducing Methodism, being a Methodist himself, and constantly entertained the local preachers. The tradition of him runs that he was a man of great energy, untiring industry, and so upright in his dealings that he was wont to be called "honest James Heald." Reserved in temperament, and with some stern features in his character, he was also a man of deep and tender feeling. A still more pleasant tradition is preserved that, when he came to his end, he died of heart-disease, in 1816, at the age of fifty-seven,-he called his household around him, and, literally "leaning upon the top of his staff," prayed with them and commended them all most solemnly to the blessing of God; immediately afterwards departing in the peace of the Gospel. His discretion was shown in early life, when he married Lucy, the only daughter of John Norris, a Methodist preacher, whose record is found thus in Atmore's "Methodist Memorial: "JOHN NORRIS. He came into the vineyard as an itinerant preacher, at the Conference of 1778. He was a deeply pious man; a lover and a witness of the doctrine of Christian Perfection. He loved God with all his heart; and was wholly devoted to His service. After spending about four years in calling sinners to repentance, and preaching Jesus to a lost world, he died, as he had lived, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,' in the year 1782, at Epworth," in Lincolnshire. The daughter of this excellent man was worthy of such a father. She became the mother of fifteen children, eight of whom she was permitted to rear. Six of these were daughters, to whom reference will be made hereafter. The eldest son, the late Mr. George Heald, was the father of a numerous family, in the line of which the family name and possessions are transmitted. Mr. James Heald was the second son of this happy union, and was born at Portwood, March 1st, 1796. It may be supposed that the influence of such parents, especially of such a mother, would early prepare the way for the Spirit's saving grace. It was certainly so in his case: the Holy Ghost was with him from his earliest years. Sent for education at Rochdale, he did not leave behind his good impressions, nor, as too often happens, lose them at school: they were rather deepened than otherwise; and his youthful heart was filled with filial confidence towards God. But he had, like most others, to pass through a sharp crisis when boyhood ripened into youth and maturity. He did not glide insensibly into a confirmed religious character. The struggle took place when he was engaged in his father's works at Waterside: greatly aided by the prayer and counsel of a godly uncle, named Crompton, he was enabled to receive the atonement by faith, and in the enjoyment of Christian liberty to consecrate his heart to the service of his Saviour. The whole of his subsequent life showed that this conversion was once for all; he never needed another great change; but, having entered into a living fellowship with Christ, he abode in Him to the end. Meanwhile, all things smiled on his prospects as a man of business. His education, however limited in other respects, had been perfect as a preparation for commerce. He has been heard to say that nothing in arithmetic or calculation ever had any difficulty for him; and that such studies as had a practical bearing on the economics of life had for him a special charm. His father's energy had laid such a foundation as any young man of his discretion and ability might have built upon with sure results. But his heart was not in this manner of life. Trafficking in markets or on the exchange, and the supervision of multitudes of servants, never suited him. His taste was for another ancient and dignified kind of business, banking and financial operations; and his remarkable skill, amounting almost to genius, in this line, turned long afterwards to the advantage of very many. He left his father's occupation: induced partly by indifference to it; partly by the influence of a severe affliction which befell him just at this time; and, more perhaps than he was then aware, by a secret, growing, and unconquerable desire to be more directly engaged in the service of the Gospel. Be that as it may, in 1817, about a year after his father's death, he definitively wound up the business at Waterside, and finally gave up manufacturing and commerce. This done, he took lodgings in Manchester, and commenced a course of study under the guidance of the late Rev. Dr. Burton, with whom he had some family connection, intending, it would seem, to enter the ministry of the Established Church. What led his thoughts in that direction does not appear: that he had then, and retained through life, a warm admiration for much in the constitution, doctrine, worship, and formularies of the English Church; and that he had his full share of the hereditary kindness and even reverence for that Church which early Methodism transmitted to her children, needs no proof for those who knew Mr. Heald well. But he was a thorough Methodist, and it is probable that, as in the case of one of his compeers, the late Mr. John Fernley, the movement towards the orders of the Establishment was rather passive than active, the half-formed resolution of a youth which never carried with it the consent of the inner man. One cannot help speculating what kind of clergyman he would have made, with his high and unbending principle, his tender evangelical grace, and |