One of the early Wesleyan Missionaries to the Indies who travelled, and laboured, and suffered with exemplary patience and endurance was the Rev Matthew Lumb, a man of quiet zeal and manners, but of undaunted courage and steady.
A brief sketch of the leading incidents eventful life, so far as they relate to the enterprise may serve to quicken our zeal and in our hearts feelings of sympathy for the servants of Christ, and of gratitude to God that we in times when less suffering and sacrifice are at our hands in our efforts to extend the interests Redeemer's kingdom.
Mr Lumb was born near Halifax Yorkshire in the month of October 1761 In childhood and youth he accompanied his parents to an Independent chapel in the neighbourhood of his birthplace; but little appears to have been known, in the family, of spiritual religion.
Nevertheless the mother sometimes talked with her son about being a good boy, telling him that if he became such, when he died he would go to heaven.
This kind of conversation affected him much and before he was eleven years of age he was brought under deep concern for the salvation of his soul.
As he grew up these convictions wore away for a time and with other youths he indulged in the follies and vanities of the present world.
At length Matthew Lumb was brought in contact with the Wesleyan Methodists, who were made the means of reviving in him those religious impressions of which he had formerly been the subject, and of leading him to a saving knowledge of the Redeemer.
The first Methodist sermon which he heard was on Christmas Day 1775; and from this time he continued his attendance at the chapel, being attracted chiefly by the singing, both at public worship, and at the prayer meetings.
One Sunday evening soon afterwards, he went to chapel as usual with some of his companions in a very thoughtless manner; but while the preacher was addressing the congregation in the language of earnest exhortation and making mention of the brittle thread of life, the nearness of eternity, and the danger sinners were in of dropping into hell, his words went to the heart of the giddy youth, and he trembled from head to foot under a sense of his guilt and misery.
He went home alone, and that night, for the first time in his life, he began to pray in earnest that the Lord would have mercy upon him.
Having no clear apprehension of the way of salvation, nor any one at hand to give him suitable advice, the mourning penitent continued for several weeks in a state of great mental distress.
In the mean time his mother, who was also seeking mercy, found peace through believing, and invited her son to go to a class meeting.
He went, and found great encouragement while hearing others speak of their religious exercises.
After many painful struggles it was in one of these blessed means of grace that he found peace and comfort for his troubled heart through the mercy of God in Christ Jesus.
Adverting to this eventful period of his life he says: Soon afterwards I went to meet in a class, and while the people were speaking the state of their minds, the Lord in tender mercy cleared up my evidence, every doubt and scruple fled away in a moment and joy, unspeakable filled my heart.
My darkness was changed to spiritual light, heaviness into gladness, bondage into liberty, and the hell I had felt in my breast into a heaven of joy.
Then I truly began to live, and enjoy happy days, and could bless God that ever I was born, to know and enjoy His love. Soon after the young convert had experienced this great change he began to exercise his talents in the prayer meetings and to give a word of exhortation; and in 1780 he became fully engaged as a Local Preacher.
In this capacity he was made very useful, so that in the town where he lived the Society increased in two years from twenty to seventy members chiefly by his influence and efforts.
This gave me great satisfaction; he wrote afterwards; for it was the desire of my heart to see the kingdom of Jesus flourish.
I soon began to preach three times on the Sabbath, and to walk ten and sometimes twenty miles.
For two years and a half I laboured so hard, both on Sabbaths and week days that many times I could hardly get up stairs at night.
My friends often told me I would kill myself; but I did not mind what I suffered in the cause of so good a Master.
This was an excellent training for the full work of a Pioneer Evangelist, and we are not surprised that the Lord of the harvest should call His servant to a more extensive sphere of labour.
At the Conference of 1783 Mr Wesley sent out Mr Lumb into the regular itinerant work; and he was appointed to the Dales Circuit of which Barnard Castle was then the head.
Here he endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
The following winter was very severe, so that it was frequently impossible to cross the mountains with a horse; and on three different occasions the young Preacher had to walk in his boots and over coat a distance of one hundred and fifty miles.
He was repeatedly nearly lost in the snow, and was obliged to creep over the drifts on his hands and knees, while the snow fell so fast that he could not see many yards before him.
He had similar hardships to endure in Scotland, to which he was afterwards appointed; but in the midst of numerous bodily discomforts he was happy in his work, and was favoured to rejoice over precious souls won to Christ through his instrumentality.
When Mr Lumb had thus laboured in the home work for five years, he felt it on his heart to offer himself as a foreign Missionary; and at the Conference of 1788 he received an appointment to the West Indies.
He embarked at Gravesend on the 25th of October, and after a safe but somewhat stormy passage landed at Barbados on the 4th of December.
Thence he proceeded to St Vincent's, Dominica and Antigua and in the island last named he laboured for about a year, in much love and harmony both with his colleagues and the people generally, and was favoured to see the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hands.
In 1789 Mr Lumb removed to the island of St Vincent, where in the order of Divine Providence he was called to pass through deep waters.
A few observations on the circumstances of the Mission at this period will explain the cause of his sufferings.
For a year or two after the Wesleyan Missionaries commenced their labours in St Vincent's the work proceeded in the most delightful manner, without any hindrance or difficulty occurring to impede its progress, beyond such as are common to the depravity of the human heart.
But all at once the planters seem to have become awake to the possibility that the free promulgation of the Gospel among the Negroes might ultimately interfere with the cherished system of slavery; and a plan of persecution was organized, which has scarcely a parallel in the history of Missions.
Effectually to put a stop to the preaching of the Missionaries a law was passed forbidding any one to preach without a licence, and to prevent unnecessary applications it was distinctly stated that no one should be eligible for a licence who had not previously resided in the island twelve months.
The authorities knew that this would effectually militate against the itinerant system of the Methodist Connexion.
This malicious and persecuting law was strengthened and guarded by penal sanctions of the most stringent character.
The progress of its operative penalties consisted of three stages, commencing with oppression and ending in blood.
For the first offence the punishment was to be a fine of ten Johannes (eighteen pounds) or imprisonment for not more than ninety days, or less than thirty; for the second offence such corporal punishment as the court should think fit to inflict, and banishment from the colony; and lastly, if the offender dared to return from his banishment and preach without authority, in violation of this law he was to be punished with DEATH.
The Rev Matthew Lumb was one of the Missionaries stationed in St Vincent at the time this cruel persecuting law was passed.
and he was not the man to flinch from danger in the discharge of what he believed to be his duty.
In this trying emergency he, and his colleagues acted just as the Apostles did under similar circumstances.
They said; Shall we obey God or man? On the following Sabbath Mr Lumb preached in the Wesleyan Chapel in Kingstown as usual, for which alleged breach of the law he was forthwith dragged to prison.
Hundreds of people followed him with tears and lamentations, and the popular excitement was such that the government authorities called out the military to guard the gaol, and to prevent the prisoner from being liberated by the populace.
While the soldiers stood by the entrance of the prison there came a poor old blind woman inquiring for dear Massa Minister.
The men said to each other Let the poor old blind woman pass; what harm can she do? Thus she was allowed to enter the gate.
On reaching the prison she groped along the wall till she found the iron grated window of the Missionary's cell, and putting her face to it she exclaimed, Dear Massa Minister, God bless you! Keep heart Massa! So dem put good people in prison long time ago.
Neber mind Massa; all we go pray for you. Mr Lumb declared afterwards that these encouraging words of the poor old blind woman were as balm to his wounded soul, and he resolved to keep heart and to cast himself afresh on the promises of Jehovah, When the tumult had somewhat subsided, and the soldiers had returned to the barracks, several of the people who lingered about were permitted to approach the prison window, where the persecuted Missionary presented himself, and actually repeated the crime for which he was committed, by speaking of Christ and His salvation.
Among the crowd there stood a woman named Mary Richardson, who thus heard the Gospel for first time.
The word came with power to her heart.
She went home, wept and prayed, and sought the Lord she found Him, to the joy of her soul.
Many years afterwards when the writer laboured in St Vincent, this woman sickened and died; and in her last moments she thanked God that ever she heard the Missionary preach through the iron grating of his prison window: For that, said she, was the word which came to my heart.
On the 26th of January 1798 Dr Coke arrived in St Vincent's from St Kitt's, where he had heard of the imprisonment of Mr Lumb.
He proceeded at once to the Kingstown gaol, and found his friend and brother confined with a common malefactor.
He afforded him all the consolation in his power, and took his departure to lay the case before the imperial government.
The result was as might have been expected.
The persecuting law was annulled, and religious liberty was restored to St Vincent's.
But this was brought about with considerable effort and after long delay.
In the mean time Mr Lumb's period of imprisonment had expired, and he was liberated.
But on leaving the prison he was required to pay the pecuniary fine and the gaol fees.
This he conscientiously declined to do: nor would he suffer his friends to do it for him as it would in his estimation be a voluntary compliance with an unjust law.
After receiving threatenings that, he should remain and rot in gaol if he did not comply, and after suffering a day's extra incarceration, he was ordered to leave the prison.
But Mr Lumb's liberation from prison only implied liberty to be silent, or to leave the island.
Under the circumstances, and with the hope of being useful elsewhere, he chose the latter and embarked by the first opportunity for Barbados.
There he had laboured with tolerable comfort and a cheering measure of success for some time, when failing health rendered it necessary for him to return to his native land.
On recovering his health Mr Lumb took an English Circuit.
and for the long period of thirty three years he continued to labour efficiently in the home work.
In 1826 however the infirmities of age and increasing weakness obliged him to retire from the full work and become a Supernumerary.
For several years previous to his death his mental faculties were impaired to such a degree as to render him incapable of taking any part in those services in which he had been so long employed and in which he always delighted.
At length he was released from his sufferings, and the Master called him to his reward in heaven.
He died in peace March 2nd 1847 in the eighty fifth year of his age, and the sixty fourth of his ministry: a fine example of simple piety, patient perseverance, and unwavering fidelity in the service of the Lord
Happy soul, thy days are ended. All thy mourning days below; Go, by angel guards attended, To the sight of Jesus go!
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