Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

serve for their dinner. I said, 'Good people, will you let me take one of
your potatoes?' 'O yes, sir! and a thousand welcomes, were they covered
with gold!' The people were delighted to see me eat one, and another, and
a third; and thought that I had laid them under endless obligation. But
they thought me an angel when for every potato I had eaten I gave them
a shilling. But they had no expectation of this kind when I first asked
liberty to taste with them. Other clergy carry themselves aloft from their
people, and thus assume and maintain a sort of antiscriptural
consequence. Methodist preachers have another kind of
consequence—their humility, their heavenly unction, and the sound of
their Master's feet behind them. Too much familiarity breeds contempt,
but humility and condescension are other qualities."
His disinterestedness was beyond all praise. He never once used the
influence which he possessed with some of high rank in behalf of himself
or family. When he had the opportunity of reaping considerable
emolument for his labours under government, and he was asked what
they could do for him, he replied, "O, nothing; I dwell among my own
people." He had also a kind heart: the various forms of human wo excited
his softest sympathy. The distressed never left his door unrelieved. He has
several times been known, when near his own gate, to give away his
shoes in order to cover the feet of another. In the commencement of the
year 1816, which was unusually severe, many hundreds of sailors were
thrown upon the benevolence and compassion of the inhabitants of
Liverpool: Dr. Clarke had some cottages untenanted, into which he put
a quantity of straw and blankets, and then sent for twenty of the poor
fellows. In the day time, they were employed in making the road to his
house; and at set hours they assembled in his kitchen to their meals, one
of the party having remained in-doors to cook for the rest. As a master he
was, if possible, over indulgent. As a father, though he very seldom
directly praised any of his children, he was notwithstanding passionately
fond of them: and they, in return, were as fond of their father. When he
heard his son Joseph preach the first time, he wrote to me in language
which, perhaps, it would hardly be prudent to publish; but which fully
exemplified the saying: "A wise son maketh a glad father." As a husband,