William Bramwell, Revivalist

C. W. Andrews

This was a great annoyance to his parents, but Bramwell would not turn back. Wesley happened about this time to come to Preston, and Bramwell met him and derived great help from his visit. He was appointed a class-leader, and soon afterwards a local preacher. He was passionately in earnest from the first, and under his preaching there were some remarkable conversions, one of the earliest being that of Ann Cutler, a woman who became eminent for holiness and usefulness.

Not long after his conversion he felt called to the ministry, but so impressed was he with the solemnity of this vocation that he passed through long agonies of prayer and self-searching under the stress of his inward conviction of a call. Meanwhile he remained for some years in business at Preston, and laboured unceasingly as a local preacher.

When the Liverpool circuit was enlarged and a request was made for an additional preacher, Wesley wrote to Bramwell requesting him to take up the work. He at once obeyed, but his Preston friends were so afflicted by the loss of this pillar of their work that they succeeded before long in persuading Wesley to send the young preacher word that he must go back home. Bramwell took this as a providential indication that he was not to be a minister. He therefore commenced a business for himself, took a house, and arranged for his marriage. At this point, however, another strong man intervened. Dr. Coke tried again and again to induce the young man to go to Kent as a minister. At last he agreed to go on condition that Dr. Coke would secure Wesley's consent to his being married when he returned from the South. In the winter of 1785, therefore, Bramwell, having purchased a horse and a pair of saddle-bags, made his way over the three hundred miles from Preston to the Kent circuit. Here he gave himself up to evangelism with a fervour prophetic of the burning zeal which was to make his name so famous. On one occasion, for instance, seven men were to be hanged in public at Maidstone, and Bramwell went over and insisted on preaching to the mob drawn by this horrible fascination. Some shouted, 'Knock the fellow down! Kill him!' but at last he contrived to preach.

In July 1787 he returned to Preston and married Miss Byrom. Almost simultaneously the Conference appointed him to Lynn. In those days to go from Preston to Lynn was a great undertaking, and Bramwell and his wife had each some little property which they wished to settle before leaving home. So the young preacher wrote to Wesley, reminding him that he had promised Dr. Coke not to hinder his marriage, and asking for a more convenient circuit. Other older men backed his request, but Wesley was too much of the captain to listen to that sort of thing, and Bramwell remained appointed to Lynn. However, he did not go; he stayed at Preston. It looked once more as if his career as a minister was doomed, but it so happened that the man appointed to the Blackburn circuit, of which Preston was then a part, died on his way to the circuit. Wesley, with characteristic magnanimity and humility, at once appointed the recalcitrant Bramwell to fill the vacancy.

At Blackburn he suffered persecution. One man used to set bulldogs upon him, and many a fight did the young preacher wage with an iron-shod stick on these ferocious creatures. He was often wounded, and all through life he retained a horror of dogs. From Blackburn he went in 1789 to Colne. During these four years in Lancashire he was laying the foundations for a remarkable ministry. He was very generous, both he and his wife parting with their property to help the poor. He had the happiness of children in his home; and we read, with reminiscences of the Wesley family, that 'he determined to break their wills at an early period, and not suffer them to cry aloud in his presence after they were ten months old.'

It was in Yorkshire that Bramwell spent most of his life, and won his great name; and we therefore follow him with deeper interest when, in 1791, just after 'Wesley had died, he crossed the border and went to live at Dewsbury. Several times in his life it was his lot to be stationed where there were hot and disastrous disputes disturbing the Church. He was an admirable man to be placed in such difficulties.

He was indisputably holy, a man of most extraordinary power in prayer, always fervent, perfectly guarded in speech, and utterly free from a partisan spirit. At Dewsbury the trustees had appointed a minister of their own, and the chapel had been lost to Methodism. Bramwell declared that he could not find in the circuit 'one who experienced sanctification,' and that there were very few who were clear as to the forgiveness of sins. It will be found that, to the end of his life, wherever he went his first inquiry was about those who 'experienced sanctification,' and it would be to miss entirely the lesson of Bramwell's life if we did not thoroughly examine his teaching and testimony on this part of Christian doctrine. It will be better, however, to deal with the subject by itself later on. The new minister at Dewsbury at once set on foot prayer-meetings held at five o'clock in the morning. Be sent for his friend, Ann Cutler, to come and help him. These two were giants in prayer. In the early hours of the morning they were, each of them alone, wrestling mightily in prayer. They never ceased. Week after week, month after month, they prayed on, till they broke down the great frost that had gripped the Methodists of Dewsbury. His first year Bramwell described as 'a year of hard labour and much grief,' but in the second there came a great revival. He became immensely popular. But that does not mean anything sinister. This popular preacher kept on, undeviatingly, with his praying; he visited constantly from house to house; he lived a very strict life, and he ruled the church with a severe discipline; he preached constantly the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of believers.

In 1793 he was appointed to Birstall. In a few months Birstall was swept by revival. But here there arose an unhappy state of things, of which Bramwell was to have fuller experience in the future. He had a colleague who disapproved of revivalism, and thought it his duty to oppose what was going on. Under his influence the leaders also held aloof. It was not long before this difficulty was surmounted, but it occupied a much larger place in Bramwell's life than that of a mere passing incident in the Birstall circuit. Further on we must return to this, when we come to sum up the work of Bramwell as a revivalist.

To Bramwell revivalism was genuine hard work. Just before he left Dewsbury a friend, the Rev John Kershaw, stayed in his house for six months. He gives the following account of some of Bramwell's exertions: 'Ionce accompanied Mr. Bramwell from Dewsbury to Wakefield in the afternoon, for the purpose of assisting the Rev. Richard Reece in holding a watch.night. Mr. Bramwell preached. We continued the service, as usual on those occasions, until the New Year was ushered in. After taking some refreshment we rode home, the parish clock striking one as we passed along the street. It was more than two o'clock when we retired to rest. The next morning (the Sabbath) he was in his closet at half-past four o'clock--near his usual hour--pouring out strong cries and tears to God. We breakfasted at our accustomed time, seven o'clock. He walked about two or two and a half miles to preach at nine, and afterwards renewed the tickets of a pretty large class. From that place he walked about three miles further; dined, preached, met two or three classes, and preached again. Afterwards he travelled upwards of two miles more on foot, and preached a fourth sermon. This done he returned home, walking five miles back. He then sat down to supper, ate his meat with gladness and singleness of heart, and with cheerfulness also. Having finished his repast, he rose from his seat exclaiming, "Brother Kershaw, I could do it all over again. I am almost as fresh as I was in the morning." The next day he was in his closet at his usual hour-four o'clock.'

In the closing years of the eighteenth century Sunday night after-meetings for prayer were very unusual in Methodist chapels. They were not indeed 'unknown, for Alexander Mather says, in a description of the revival which was appearing in various parts of the North, 'The preachers everywhere, after the usual services, held prayer-meetings: all who could conveniently remain united to implore a general blessing: and the Lord, with had inspired the desire, granted their requests.' One of the places where these prayer-meetings were established was Sheffield, and the Methodists of Sheffield believed that their prayers were answered when William Bramwell, an entirely unknown young man (for in those days fame came slowly, especially to the young), was sent to live amongst them in 1795. Sheffield was an enormous circuit. The Rotherham circuit had just been cut out of it, and in 1797 the Doncaster circuit was formed, but after these two important reductions of its area it still had sixty-six places on its plan, in addition to Norfolk Street Chapel, which was the head of the circuit. Carver Street Chapel was still ten years off when Bramwell was appointed to Sheffield.

In the months immediately before Bramwell's arrival there had been quite a notable movement. One of the ministers was so overjoyed that he declared his belief that the millennium was at hand. The new minister, however, was rather seriously disappointed. Writing, soon after his arrival, to a friend and fellow minister, Joseph Drake, he says, 'Ibelieve God has sent me here, but I cannot yet tell why. We have house, friends, and everything that we want in this way: yea, there is an uncommon sociability among the people, and apparently much plainness and simplicity. But real religion, the image of God, is everywhere much wanting. Ever since I came I have been among the Derbyshire hills, except the first night of my arrival, when I preached in Sheffield. The Societies in the fortnight ride are small; and after diligent search (for I have met the Societies at every place) I have not found one person that knows the virtue of Christ's cleansing blood. Yet there is great friendship; and it appears I am received by the people with much respect. I have had the Lord with me this fortnight at several places. Almost every night there has been a shaking among the people; and I have seen nearly twenty set at liberty. I believe I should have seen many more, but I cannot yet find one pleading man. There are many good people; but I have found no wrestlers with God. My wife has been at all the meetings in the town whilst I have been out: but no work of God is visible. All is quiet; and, I believe, nearly all the people are peaceable and kind. Indeed there is everything but depth of religion. They tell me there are at least three thousand hearers at the chapel on the Sunday evenings.'

Soon, however, things altered. Writing to the same friend in December he says, 'There is a revival in most places and in some of them it is a great one.' Norfolk Street Chapel became so crowded that 'hundreds could not enter.' And this was the case' every Sunday morning.' Another letter written in the same month shows that the tide was flowing strongly. 'I have been employed in giving tickets to about twelve hundred people in Sheffield.. . . Many members have found sanctification. I have not met, I think, above three classes in which some have not obtained deliverance-sometimes five and more. Last Sunday both chapels were filled, and at Garden Street, after preaching, the power of God descended. A cry went through the gallery. I left many in distress. I cannot tell what numbers received mercy.'

Three months later he writes: 'A great work is still going on-we are obliged to try vast numbers. We use every means to know the wheat, and to preserve it, in the early period of its growth, from the tares. I hope that in this we shall be directed. Every day souls are awakened and converted in the distant parts of the circuit, and a great number in Sheffield have received sanctification and live in its enjoyment.'
After another interval of three months his report is: 'The work still goes on and deepens exceedingly in this circuit; souls are yet brought to God every day. Some remarkable conversions have lately taken place amongst the aged. . . But I see Satan laying plots every week to hinder and destroy.' At the end of this wonderful first year of Bramwell's Sheffield ministry it was found that the number of church members had increased by 1,250.

Whilst he was in Sheffield there was much painful controversy over the question of administering the Holy Communion in Methodist chapels. The Conference was so sorely perplexed that on one occasion it resorted to the weak method of drawing lots as to its decision. But upon the whole Methodism was then, as it seems always to be, progressive and liberal, but cautiously and slowly. The country was passing through a ferment of Radicalism, largely under the fascination exerted by the French Revolution, and Methodism found its Radical Rupert in Alexander Kilham. He poured scorn on the somewhat mincing steps with which the 'Society' (not yet, by far, daring or caring to call itself a Church) advanced towards independence, and after sundry somewhat stormy adventures was eventually expelled from the Methodist ministry. The younger ministers were all more or less suspected of harbouring Radical tendencies, and they thought it wise to draw up a humble memorial to their elder brethren assuring them of the unabated loyalty of young Methodists. In common with the rest, Bramwell was considered to be one of the malcontents. Whether this suspicion was in his case well-grounded it is not easy to say, but Kilham found in Sheffield some very substantial support, and it was said that a thousand members in that city seceded to the New Connexion.

Probably the feeling against Bramwell sprang from another source. All his life he was very fearful about the spiritual condition of the Methodist preachers. One of the dangers of extremely earnest evangelists lies in this direction. Often they find it impossible to keep out of their minds the suspicion that their brethren are not as earnest as they should be. Only a day or two before he died Bramwell returned from a session of Conference, and sat down wringing his hands and crying, 'Lord, have mercy upon us! It is all over with us!' Many times he solemnly declared that 'the glory had departed.' It was this apparently constitutional fearfulness which prompted him to write a letter, whilst in Sheffield, to every superintendent minister. Let us remember that the man who wrote this letter was well under forty years of age, and a minister of only some twelve years' standing, and perhaps we may understand the fact that he brought on his unlucky head an avalanche of obloquy, and that by some he was scarcely forgiven to the day of his death. The whole need not be given, but part of it was as follows:

'DEAR BRETHREN,--My mind has been so deeply impressed with the present state of our Connexion, and I feel such an anxious solicitude to avert every impending evil, that I am compelled to break through the barrier which my deference to your superior judgement would create; and faithfully, yet affectionately, to make this one solemn appeal to you all.

'I have long been penetrated with the liveliest sorrow at perceiving an evident decline of that burning zeal, that active perseverance, that vital holiness, that lamenting love, which actuated the first Methodist preachers: and which enabled them victoriously to triumph over every obstacle. Having their heads filled with a sense of the important undertaking, the fire burning iii their own hearts, and swallowed up by love for souls that were bought by the Redeemer's blood, they scorned to lose a moment in disputing about external forms: they deprecated every strife but the noble strife of excelling each other in enlarging the Redeemer's Kingdom. Alas! my brethren. We have entered into their labours, but have we retained their spirit?'
It is a long letter, all in the same tone, and we will be content with picking out a few more sentences.

'We are fully satisfied that it is not church government, or any other outward form, which causes the present agitation and division: but that God has a controversy with us as a body. We want the power of religion among ourselves.'

'We may be proud, passionate, envious, malicious, covetous, self-willed, brawlers and triflers, given to jesting, yea, tipplers, and yet remain travelling preachers.'

'We may lose our first love, zeal, faith, patience, hope, yea, every grace-and yet go round the circuit, carrying about the ghost of a preacher, "who, being dead, yet speaketh?"'

'Brethren! Brethren! Is it not time that something should be done to reform ourselves? Have we not for years been labouring for forced unity and external peace, debating on forms and shadows, and thereby departing more from our centre?'

One cannot read all this without amazement. Perhaps it was true. Perhaps the staid and hard-working superintendents ought to have bowed meekly under the rod laid so lustily across their shoulders by the stripling from Sheffield. But as a side-light on the simple, unsophisticated, unworldly enthusiasm of Bramwell himself it is supremely interesting.