her behalf, yet appear to have felt unusual hesitation on the subject; the matter being referred to a committee, in whose hands it remained about nine months, before they could report in favor of granting the usual credentials. They were however at length, partly by earnest appeals to the affections of the young and inexperienced members, induced to set her at liberty, in the latter part of the Eighth month, 1797, and she sailed for Europe.

Travelling in Ireland, her discourses public and private, though artfully disguised for a time, were calculated to foster this spirit of insubordination, and even eventually of unbelief; and she was eagerly followed by those who were already more or less under its influence.

At the next Yearly Meeting in Dublin, this sorrowful subject claimed the serious attention of the body; which directed the Monthly Meetings timely to labor in Christian love and tenderness, for the restoration of these deluded persons; and where they could not be reclaimed, they were, with the advice of the Quarterly Meetings, to be testified against, as out of the unity of Friends. The Yearly Meeting also appointed a committee to visit the Quarterly, Monthly, and other Meetings, to assist them with advice and counsel in the trying circumstances under which many of them were placed. The appointment of this committee struck dismay into the ranks of the dissentients, as they saw that it rendered their prospect of carrying their own measures entirely hopeless.

David Sands, a valuable minister from the state of New York, before mentioned, who had arrived in Great Britain in 1795, had been drawn in the love of Christ to visit Ireland; and being led into very plain dealing among them, in imparting the whole counsel of his Divine Master, he became a principal mark for their enmity. Many of them refused to acknowledge his ministry by uniting in the usual orderly practice of standing up and taking off the hat,

while he was engaged in meetings for worship in the solemn act of addressing the Most High.

Richard Jordan also, of North Carolina, a fellow-laborer in the same glorious gospel, was moved at that juncture to visit the afflicted Society in Ireland; and is believed to have been eminently useful in strengthening the weak hands of those who were faithfully opposing this spirit of unbelief and disorder, and in confirming the feeble faith of some, who were ready to falter under the plausible appearances which were presented. He bore a solemn and powerful testimony against the dangerous tendency of this delusion; he labored with undaunted zeal to expose its fallacies; he warned both young and old against suffering themselves to be entangled therein; and under the influence of a prophetic spirit, he foretold the sorrowful consequences which these errors, if persisted in, would inevitably produce.

But notwithstanding the earnest labors of many deeply concerned Friends, the leaders of this secession continued their course, until many lost their membership in the Society. In the province of Ulster, all the elders were displaced from their station; and a considerable number of ministers and elders in various parts were disowned from membership. Hannah Barnard, notwithstanding the private labor which had been abundantly bestowed upon her, at length so openly avowed her unbelief in the divinity and atonement of the blessed Saviour, and the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, that on her leaving Ireland, in the spring of 1800, she was called to account before the Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Elders in London, for her unsound doctrines, discouraged from continuing to travel as a minister, and advised to return home.

The committee of the Yearly meeting of Dublin to visit and aid the subordinate meetings, was reappointed each year until 1802, when the painful duty of separating from

the body those who persisted in adhesion to this heresy, appeared to be nearly completed, and the Society clear from responsibility for their errors. The hand of Divine Providence seemed to be turned in an awful manner against these deniers of the Divinity of the Lord Jesus; so that the predictions of Richard Jordan and others were remarkably verified. Some of them who had lived in affluence, experienced a sad reverse in their condition; many not only lost their religious reputation, but even suffered in their moral character, and became an astonishment to their former acquaintances. Others, however, awakened by timely warning, abandoned their errors, and through the mercy of a gracious Redeemer, came to experience repentance and forgiveness; these embraced the Christian religion in renewed faith and sincerity, and were restored into the fellowship of the church.

Hannah Barnard, not complying with the admonitions of the Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Elders in London, her case was brought into the Monthly Meeting of Devonshire House in that city, which also, after examination, advised her to return home. She was not willing to take this advice, and finally appealed to the Yearly Meeting in 1801; which, after a patient investigation of the case, confirmed the advice of the Monthly Meeting. On her return, her own Monthly Meeting being apprised of her unsoundness, she was, after ineffectual attempts to reclaim her, at length disowned by Friends, and sunk into obscurity.

CHAPTER XLV..

THOMAS SHILLITOE'S EARLY LIFE AND CONVINCEMENT

HIS REMARKABLE GOSPEL LABORS IN IRELAND, ETC.

NE of the most remarkable men who joined the Society

ONE

in modern days, was Thomas Shillitoe. He was born in London, in the year 1754, and educated according to the views of the Episcopal society, of which his parents were zealous members. From about the twelfth year of his age, he was exposed to many temptations. His father taking charge of a large tavern at Islington, in the suburbs of that great city, Thomas, whose disposition was naturally volatile, was exposed to the contamination of evil examples in almost every kind of vice. He was afterwards placed as apprentice with a person much given to liquor and unprofitable company; so that his situation continued to be one of great danger. But, though thus exposed, adorable mercy awakened in his mind a degree of serious thoughtfulness, which no doubt preserved him from many gross evils: Growing up towards manhood, he occasionally attended the meetings of Friends with a young relative; but this was not from a pure motive, and did not appear to be productive at that time of much effect on his mind. He generally spent the afternoon of the First-day of the week in idleness and rambling about for pleasure, giving greater latitude than ever to his natural inclinations. But the retrospect of this, in times of serious reflection, was not productive of that comfort which he had once known, when this day of the week had been differently occupied. He was, however, mercifully again visited by the reproofs of the Holy Spirit, and his attention arrested,

to consider the misery into which the road he was now travelling must eventually lead him, if he continued to pursue it. He found he must now attend meetings for worship from a sense of religious obligation, and that too both morning and afternoon; and as he faithfully gave up to this duty, his desires increased after an acquaintance with the Almighty, and a knowledge of His law. Earnest were his prayers, that in this day of the Lord's powerful visitation, in mercy renewed to his soul, the Father of all grace would not leave him to become a prey to his soul's enemy—that His hand would not spare, nor his eye pity, until an entire willingness was brought about in him, to cast himself down at the Lord's holy footstool. As resignation was thus produced in him, to yield to the purifying operation of the Holy Ghost and fire, that the fan of God's Word and power should separate between the precious and the vile, corresponding fruits were brought forth, and manifested in his outward conduct.

His father showed great displeasure at his attending the meetings of Friends, and endeavored to dissuade him therefrom, representing the Society in as unfavorable and ridiculous a point of view as he could; but without effect. Thomas soon felt that it would be right for him to use the pure language of thou and thee, instead of you, to a single person, and to refuse to conform to the vain compliments of the world. During the mental exercises which he passed through on this account, he fell under much discouragement; especially when his father told him that he must quit his paternal abode, and go among those with whom he had associated in religious profession. But in this season of close trial, he was not deserted by Him who cares even for the sparrows. A situation was procured for him as clerk in a banking-house. Here he entertained a hope of being out of the way of much temptation; but alas! he soon found his mistake; and that no situation was safe.