Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

THE CENTENARY OF
BILLY BRAY.
A REMARKABLE CAREER.
A hundred yeara ago to-day William,
oommonly called ' Billy,' Bray was born in
a Cornish village ; aud so he had just reached
maiontv wheu the battle of Waterloo was
fought. Being left fatherless when a ohild he
went to live with his grandfalhor, oeq of the
old Methodists who joined the thon perse
outed and despised people when John Wesley
first visited the country. He received but
little education, early became a miner, and at
the age of seventeen removed to Devonshire,
where he fell into habits of excessive drink
ing. He had narrow escapes for his life.
About tbe age of twenty-seven he married.
Sometimes half hia wages were spent in
strong drink, aud his wife had to fetch him
night after night from the public-house. And
vilur sins than drunkenness stained his soul.
During his thirtieth yoar he reached the
turning point. Toe change was as life from
the dead. He joined the Bible Christian
Church, and was faithful unto death. At
once he became a zealous worker among his
neighbours and fellow-workmen. Within a
year ho began to preach, and sucoeeded
well. Ho usually opened his addresses by
reoiting part of a hymn, giving a little of his
own experience, or relating some telling anec
dote. He had the art of pleasing and profit
lug the people, so that persons of all ages and
ranks flocked to bear him, and he retained hia
popularity to the last He was one of the
preachers ab the opening of the new Chapel at
Lake Shobbsar, the biruh-plaoa of the Bible
Christian denomination.
To parsons of his own class he made his
most powerful appeals, Homely illustrations
feathered hia arrows, and sent the truth homo
to the heart. The Rev. Mark Guy Pearoe
says : — ' From one end of Cornwall to another
no namo is more familiar than that of Billy
Bray. On Sundays when one met crowds of
strangers making for the little white-washed
Chapal that was perched up amongst the
granite bouldors, or when one found the
quiet 'Church town' thronged by the well
dressed people, the usual explanation was
that Billy Bray was going to preach. If you
had overtaken Billy on the way you could not
long have been in doubt aa to who ho was.
A little, spare, wiry man, whose dress of
orthodox black and white tie indicated the
preacher. The sharp, quick discerning eye
that looked out from under the brows, the
mouth almost bard in its decision, all the faoe
softened.by tbe light that played constantly
upon in, and by the happy wrinkles round the
eyes, and the smile that had perpetuated itself
— these belonged to no ordinary man. And
with the first suspicion that this was Billy
Bray there would quickly come enough to
confirm it.' Amid stern difficulty he built
three chapels, which were eminently useful.
Through the appeals of James Tearo, a pioneer
temperance teformer, he became a teetotaller,
and etronely advocated the ciuiso of tem
perance to the end of life. Though an in
veterate smokar he mastered the habit and
begged others to do likewise. He waa ' in
stant in season and out of season.' Without
regard to position, rank, character, or oircum
stanoos, ho wa3 ever ready to testify for
his Master or to administer such reproof,
counsel, or warning as he deemed necessary.
He seemed to be one of those 'unordained men
that are ordained of God from their birth to be
teachera iu this way.' He brought up a largo
family upon a small income. His life was
fraught with vicissitudes ; at times there wao
great hardship, but he held on his way. His
eye had a merry twinkle, his countenance an
open and benevolent expression, his voice a
cheerful and pleasant ring even to the last.
Ha took lone journeys, held frequent services,
hud regular times for fasting and prayer in
old age. When infirmities had come upon
him his ruling passion had undergone no
change, his spiritual ardour suffered no abate
ment, and his visits to the sick seemed more
numerous than before. The final illness did not
last very long, and May 23, 1SG8, he breathed
his last in the house which gave him birth
seventy-four years before.
A few of the leading features of Billy
Bray's character may be indioated. Reality
was conspicuous. There was no pretonce.
Transparent genuineness was patent to all,
and those who know him be.it had clearest
proof of it. He commanded universal
respecb because he was true. Revela
tion, faith, the unseen world were real
to him. Reality made him a power while he
lived, and a greater power still after his death.
There was marked individuality. He never
aped any body, but was content to occupy the
niche that nature assigned him. All he did
bore his image and superscription. Some of
his views were peculiar, bull he held them
honestly. He could not be an eoho ; he was a
distinct voice, and spoke the truth in his own
way. Brightness prevailed. He alv/aya repre
sented the sunny side of religion. His face, a
picture of happiness, was the index to his
whole life. He ran his course with even joy.
He smiled through his tears. The bitterest
trials of life could not repress his gladness.
His religion was practical. It beamed upon
men with tendernea3, and offerod them iSs eifts
of love and service. He was » microcosm of
the best elements in the forward movement
of Methodism, and in the Salvation Army.
Catholicity waa prominent. Hia soul was
bigger than Methodism. ' God is love' was
tho chief artiole in his oreed. People of all
denominations, from Anglicans to Quakers
and nondescripts, were drawn to him. An
Irish Roman Catholic woman, who came to
reside in the village, was led to his meetings,
and joined the Ghuroh. Oue of her sons is a
local preacher at the Burra, another ia a
Presbyterian minister at Bollarat,
The Btory of tbia devoted and eocontrio man
haa excited wider interest than almost any
other bicgraphy of the age. It was popular
from the first. One edition followed another
in rapid succession. The Queen expressed
herseif as much pleased with tbe book. The
late Mr. John Melrose, of Edinburgh,
twelve years in succession purchased an
average of 3,000 copies per annum for
free distribution, or to bo sold at a very
cheap rate. Many of these went into the
Highlands of Scotland, and the remarkable
religious awakening there, different persons
testified, wbb owing, on the human side, more
to the general reading of ' Billy Bray' in the
oottages of the paople than to anything else.
A lady in Brighton bought 1,600, aud gave one
to every cabman, policeman, and waterman in
the town. A single copy, which was lent
about in a suburb of London, led threo per
sons in a fortnight to join tha Church, and to
the closing of a public-house. Over 300,000
copies have crone out from the Bible Christian
Bookroom in London. The book has been re
printed by two publishing firms in America and
translated into numerous foreign languages.
Altogether, probably, nearly half a million
copies have been circulated, and the author
hft8 received letters from many hundred per
sona who were led to pursue a
Christian life by reading the book.
Innumerable lectures have been given on the
subject, ten or twelve being delivered tho same
night in different parts of England. Billy
Brny, ' being dead, yet speaketh.' Many
gems of Fpaeoh from his lips heve been re
peated wherever the English language pre
vails, and through his biography he e peaks to
day with greater volume than over. The
sweet bells of Baldha Church, beside which
his body rests, are heard for many miles, but
the musio of hiB life ha9 gone to the ends of
the earth and inspired 'men of every nation
under heaven.'
$