Note 166 — Chapter XVIII

Mr. Wren’s original scene of duty was in Wales, and it was because his health appeared to have sunk beneath his labours there that her Ladyship recommended a tour in England. “Now, Wren (says the Countess), I charge you to be faithful, and to deliver a faithful message in all the congregations.” “My Lady (said Wren), they will not bear it.” She rejoined “I will stand by you.” His tour was marked by the seal of utility, especially at Oxford and at Grimsby, where, being overtaken by a shower of rain, he took shelter in a wayside house, in which many labourers had assembled to take refuge from the rain. Hearing them swear, he went out of the parlour to them, and upon the promise of giving them half-a-crown, obtained their attention while he read two sermons to them, and spoke urgently as to the state of their souls. On his return, he found that two of these men had, by his means, been awakened to a due sense of their eternal interests. He was invited to remain at York, which Lady Huntingdon not approving, he withdrew from the Connexion of his noble patroness in the year 1780. On the 4th August, 1784, in his 34th year, he fell asleep in the Lord. He died at Scarborough, but was buried at York, in the chapel which Mr. Batty built, and where he, too, was interred.

In his doctrine, Mr. Wren was strictly Calvinistic. His manner of preaching was warm and fervid, and but that his voice was sometimes pitched too loudly, he might have been called an orator of nature’s making. Seeing the people inattentive to one of his unprepared discourses, he hastily descended from the pulpit, and walking rapidly towards that part of the congregation that betrayed neglect, addressed them with the Spirit and with power, and the Lord blessed the word. In Wales, hearing of the reputed efficacy of St. Govin’s well in the cure of bodily diseases, he resolved to carry thither his medicines for the bruised spirit. The Welsh Bethsaida stands at the foot of immense rocks, quite open to the sea, and far from any town. Multitudes assembled in so strange a scene whom he addressed from the words, “Rocks, fall on us,” &c. (Rev. vi. 16, 17). One man, who had opposed the dedication of a place of worship, was convinced, and immediately appropriated the place to its purpose.