Part 2

In April 1775, the whole family, consisting of the father and mother, with four sons and one daughter, sailed from Hull, and after a prosperous voyage arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they remained a fortnight, proceeding afterward to Cumberland, which they reached in June. A serious blow fell upon the family in their new home, by the death of Mrs. Black, about a year after they had settled in the province, she having been seriously injured when boarding the vessel at Hull. Unfortunately for the lad of sixteen, so sadly bereft of his good mother's care and influence, he was thrown among gay companions, who in a new country gave free rein to their passions, in wild orgies by day and night. His evenings were spent in dancing and playing cards, yet amidst the frivolity he was unhappy, and he betook himself to prayer, that he might be able to break the chain of evil habits.

For three years this condition of affairs existed, and the spirit of unrest increased, with discord in the family, but the dawn of a better day was close at hand. There were several in the neighborhood who enjoy the honor of being the first Methodists in Canada, among whom were the families of Dixon, Wells, Trueman, Fawcett, Newton, Scurr, Chapman, Oxley, Donkin, Dobson and Weldon, whose descendants, with those of the Black family, remain with us till the present day.

Through the zealous labors of these families in class meetings and prayer meetings, there was a great revival in the spring of 1779, which stirred the whole neighborhood. Among those who were awakened and soundly converted, were all the members of the Black family. William was then nineteen years of age, and shortly afterward he wrote an account of his conversion to John Wesley, who introduced it in his journal, under date of April 15th, 1782.

The story of his spiritual struggles, his prayers for release from the burden of sin, and the great joy he experienced when light came to his soul, form a charming bit of biography. The change in his own life was thorough, the home was transformed by the conversion of every member of the family, and though he subsequently experienced doubts and temptations, he gradually grew in grace, being confirmed in the faith, until the Sabbath became a market-day in his soul.

Like every new convert he became anxious for the spiritual welfare of his fellow men, and first of all he became solicitous for the salvation of those in his own home. His father having married again, and all the members of the family being strangers to the joy of the forgiveness of sins, his first care was for their salvation. On the Sunday that he found peace, he spoke to his brothers one by one, waking them from sleep, and they too, were led into the light. Then he roused his father and stepmother, and they besought him to pray for them, and peace came to their souls. And the climax was reached, when next day his sister found the Lord. Thus the whole family through his exhortations and prayers, became earnest followers of Christ. Along with the joy of seeing all at home possessors of the joy of forgiveness, he set up the family altar, and then became anxious for the souls of his neighbors. As he passed them on the road he lifted his heart in prayer for their conversion, in company, he seized the opportunity of denouncing sin, much to the annoyance of some, but ultimately with spiritual profit. His early efforts at winning souls were so richly blessed, that he seized every opportunity of speaking of the good things of Christ.

In the summer of 1780, at a Quarterly Meeting held at Mr. Trueman's, he received so great a blessing that he wept, and the same evening at Fort Lawrence he made his first attempt at exhortation. From that hour he exhorted or prayed at every meeting, and though his knees trembled with fear, his tongue was loosened, and he spoke with much liberty. During the following winter he was invited to Tantramar to hold meetings, and had great joy in seeing many led to Christ. Assisted by some of the old class leaders and local preachers, he travelled over the country, exhorting as often as his duties on the farm would permit.

His first attempt at preaching from a text was in the spring of 1781, when he visited a settlement on the Petitcodiac River, and the word was with power. With so many tokens of the divine favor, it was evident that he was a marked man, and though not quite twenty-one years of age, and without any special training, he was being literally thrust out, and seemed destined to be the man who should lead the forces, and lay the foundations of Methodism, far beyond the limits of his own neighborhood. The man possessed of gifts and grace, in whom the people had confidence, and who was singularly blessed in winning souls had come, and the stripling on the farm was called to leave the plough and go forth, to proclaim the great truths of the Gospel of Christ. He was truly a chosen vessel, and fitted for a great work.

III.

THE MARITIME ITINERANT.

The population of Nova Scotia in 1781 numbered twelve thousand, of whom there were about one hundred Acadian families, and exclusive of Cape Breton, three hundred warriors of the Micmac, and one hundred and forty of the Malicete tribes of Indians. Places of worship were few and widely scattered over a large extent of country, and so destitute were the people of religious privileges that many of them seldom heard a sermon, and as some of these people had been brought up in the bonds of the faith, they naturally felt very keenly their condition.

These facts could not fail to impress very deeply such a sensitive soul, rejoicing in his first love, and possessed of a burning passion for the salvation of men, whose lips had been touched with holy fire. When his labors had been so richly blessed in the conversion of many souls, while preaching in the time spared from his labor on the farm, his mind was led toward a complete consecration to the work of a Christian minister, and when he had arrived at the age of twenty-one years, he dedicated himself wholly to the cause of Christ, as the first Methodist missionary in the Maritime Provinces. Without any college training, or the help of any minister or church institution, he left his father's home on November 10th, 1781, and commenced a career of undaunted energy, and boundless influence, laying foundations for others, and becoming essentially the founder of Methodism in Eastern British America.

During the eight years of his life from 1781 to 1789, he passed from the position of a raw youth, entering alone amid great difficulties upon the work of a pioneer evangelist, to that of Superintendent of the Methodist Church in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. With the zeal of an apostle he entered upon a career of usefulness, which for courage and incessant travelling and preaching, place him side by side with John Wesley and Francis Asbury. Here and there, all over the province he went proclaiming the message of salvation, preaching every day, and sometimes more frequently, as we learn of him preaching eighteen times in eight days, and upon another journey which occupied eighteen days, he preached twenty-four times.

He travelled on snow-shoes in the winter, and by boat or on horseback in the summer, and when these failed, he journeyed by log canoe, or walked over the bad roads. Once he walked forty five miles that he might spend the Sabbath with the people in Windsor. Sometimes he was in dangers by the sea, and glad after a hard day's work in the winter to have a little straw to lie upon, and a thin cover to shelter him from the cold. Like the early preachers he was often compelled to suffer opposition, rough fellows disturbing the services by shouting and seeking to break up the meeting, and some who were possessed of education demanding his authority for preaching the gospel, but to them all, he was patient, and some of his revilers were soundly converted, and learned to revere him as a man of God.

As a preacher he was eminently successful in awakening the people from a state of spiritual torpor, and winning many souls for Christ. In nearly every service there were conversions, and deep manifestations of the presence and power of God. When he preached at Memramcook, "some were deeply affected;" at French village, he left the people in tears, and the truth had a softening power upon the hearts of the people; and when he was leaving them, "weeping was upon every hand," and they pressed him so hard, that he remained another day, when many were deeply affected, and he left them in tears. On the same day and the one following, he was at Hillsborough, when "it was a moving time, many were in great distress, as appeared from their heaving breasts and weeping eyes;" at Tantramar, "many were remarkably happy," and one little girl of seven or eight years of age, "got up on a form, and told in a wonderful manner, what Jesus had done for her soul," and in this journey of eight days he preached eighteen times, and excepting two meetings, he says, "I know not a single occasion in which it was not evident that many who heard the Word were melted into tears, if they did not cry aloud for mercy."

All through his journal, there are evidences that he was a preacher of great power, eminent in the conversion of the people, for the pages abound with references to the services as "a time of power," where "many were in sore distress" as they hung around him, "eager to catch every word," and "weeping was on every hand," as they besought him to remain longer with them. When preaching one evening a young man trembled exceedingly, and cried out in agony of soul, and about bed-time, the preacher heard him praying and crying in the barn. On one of his missionary tours there were so great manifestations of power, that at Horton many cried for mercy, and others rejoiced and shouted aloud; at Cornwallis the arrows of conviction were felt by some "as they had never felt them before, and wept aloud most of the time;" and at Falmouth, "many felt the power of the word," and rejoiced exceedingly.

There were many notable conversions under his preaching. At Petitcodiac a lady whose sons had been converted looked upon him as a deceiver and opposed his work. "She wrung her hands in great distress, and cried 'O that Black! that Black! he has ruined my sons! He has ruined my sons!'" But she too found peace to her soul, after some days of deep conviction. At Horton a lady who had opposed the work of grace, was laid upon a bed of affliction, and she became so greatly agitated that for three weeks she could hardly sleep, but when William Black was praying with her, she burst forth into transports of joy in finding Christ precious to her soul, shouting, "the Lord has delivered me! O I am happy! I am happy!" All through the pages of his journal there abound remarkable accounts of striking conversions, and of people being stricken down by the power of God.

Churches were organized at the places he visited, nearly eighty persons being enrolled during one visit to Hillsborough and Petitcodiac. There wore notable revivals at Windsor, Cornwallis, Granville, Horton, Liverpool and other places. The most difficult part of his extensive field was at Halifax, where wickedness abounded, and the opposition was so great that at one time, when he was on his way to the city, his friends tried to persuade him to delay his visit, as they feared the press gang, but he went boldly forward, and preached with power.

During his labours he was not forgetful of the needs of the coloured people, who flocked to hear him preach, and many of them were soundly converted. In 1784, he preached to about two hundred of them at Birchtown, and during the year upwards of sixty of them found peace with God. Of two hundred members at Shelburne and Birchtown, there were only twenty white people, and at Birchtown alone, there were fourteen classes in a prosperous condition. At Digby in the following year, there were sixty-six coloured people members of our church.

A study of the topics and texts of his sermons shows that he preached the old doctrines, from familiar texts, easy to be grasped by the people, and he laid special emphasis always upon sin, the need of regeneration, and repentance and faith, and as he pressed home these great truths upon the souls of his hearers, there was seldom a service at which conversions did not take place. Like many other faithful ministers, he was often compelled to mourn on account of the backsliding of the people. These were seasons of depression, when he became subject to severe temptation, and mourned the leanness of his own soul. The beginning of every year however, was a time of refreshing, as he regularly and solemnly made the renewal of his covenant with God.

Despite the fact that the whole province of Nova Scotia and part of New Brunswick lay before him as a wide field of enterprise, he yearned after larger conquests, and therefore in 1784, at the earnest and repeated request of Benjamin Chappel, he paid a visit to Prince Edward Island.

He spent about a fortnight there, preaching in Charlottetown and St. Peters, with small tokens of success, and returned mourning the spiritual condition of the people.

After much thought and prayer, he was married on Feb. 17, 1784, to Miss Mary Gay, of Cumberland, an estimable woman, who had been led to Christ about two years previously under his preaching. She was possessed of gifts and grace as her letters testify, and was eminently qualified for the high duties of a minister's wife.

So extensive was the territory and so great the spiritual needs of the people that the young missionary of twenty three years of age, with a burning passion for souls, wrote to John Wesley in 1783, earnestly requesting him to send missionaries to Nova Scotia, who replied that he had hopes of sending assistance a few months later when Conference met. There being no missionaries, however, sent from Great Britain, he naturally looked towards the United States for help, and a few months after his marriage, he started for Baltimore where the Conference was to be held under the superintendence of Dr. Coke. He travelled by way of Boston and preached twice in the city, when under the first sermon one person was converted, and at the second service several were deeply convinced of sin. As he passed through New York he preached in the Methodist Church, and after the services visited a dying woman, whom he found in great distress about her spiritual condition, and he had the great joy of leading her to Christ, as she died next day, shouting, "Glory! Glory be to thy blessed name!" On his journey he preached at every opportunity and always with blessed results, and before the Conference assembled in Baltimore on December 24, 1784, he gave Dr. Coke a detailed account of the state of the work in Nova Scotia, and the Conference appointed Freeborn Garretson, and James O. Cromwell to labor in that field. Both of these ministers hastened at once to that province, but William Black spent some time in the United States preaching here and there, and called for his wife who was visiting her friends in Massachusetts, she having been born in Boston, and with the tedious travel he did not reach Halifax till the end of May. As he was returning homeward, he and his wife spent over three months in Boston, where he had the honor of laying the foundations of Methodism in that city, "the first Methodist preacher who appeared in New England after the visit of Charles Wesley," says Dr. Abel Stevens. He preached in several of the churches, removing from one to another, as the edifice became too small to accommodate the crowds who flocked to hear the young minister from Canada, until the largest church was filled to overflowing with three thousand people. A gracious revival followed this visit, and as there was no Methodist organization, the converts united with other denominations. After a period of thirty years, he preached again in the city in 1822, and many hung around the pulpit, glad to listen to the man who had led them to Christ in 1785. Six years before Jesse Lee preached under the old elm on Boston Common, William Black declared the old doctrines of Methodism, and witnessed many conversions.

With the arrival of Freeborn Garretson the work of organization was begun, as he was a leader, a man of zeal and piety, "of cordial spirit and amiable simplicity of manners, but a hero at heart," says Abel Stevens, the Methodist historian. He was a gentleman of wealth and character, who as a preacher in the United States, had been stoned, imprisoned, and his life imperilled by angry mobs with firearms, but he was dauntless in his labors for Christ. Under his preaching there were extensive revivals in the province, societies were formed and churches built. There were now five missionaries at work, Freeborn Garretson who acted as Superintendent, and made his home at Shelburne, James Oliver Cromwell at Windsor, William Black at Halifax, William Grandine, a young man who had formerly been a Methodist in the Jersey Islands, and who had just begun to preach was at Cumberland, and John Mann who came from the United States, was stationed at Barrington.

At the first District Meeting of Nova Scotia, which was held in Halifax, commencing October 10th, 1786, and lasted four days, William Black and Freeborn Garretson were appointed to the Halifax circuit, which embraced Halifax, Annapolis, Granville, Digby, Horton and Windsor, a field sufficient to tax the powers of a dozen strong men, but these were heroes in the brave days of old. Before the next District Meeting Garretson and Cromwell had returned to the United States, and their places were filled by William Jessop and Hickson. With the departure of Garretson there was lost to the province a man who was eminently fitted to lead the forces and unite them, and William Black mourned greatly that he was bereft of a friend, and a gentleman of ability and grace.

IV.

THE INTREPID PIONEER.

The mantle of Garretson fell upon Black and he was again compelled to lead the forces, and take the initiative in opening up new places and preaching at every opportunity. Aroused by the sad spiritual condition of the people, he spared not himself in excessive labors, and so successful were his efforts for the conversion of souls, that John Wesley became more concerned than ever, in the affairs in the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland. Dr. Coke who constituted in his own person the Methodist Missionary Society, was commissioned by Wesley to visit Nova Scotia, and he embarked on September 24th, 1786, with three missionaries for Nova Scotia, but a dangerous storm which cast the vessel on the ocean for nearly two and a half months, compelled them to land at Antigua, in the West Indies, and Black was left without the promised help, as the missionaries remained there, and a new era of successful missions was begun. His field was large enough surely, for Wesley had said in a letter to him dated London, Oct. 15, 1784, "Your present parish is wide enough, namely Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. I do not advise you to go any further." During the year 1786, there was a great revival in Liverpool under John Mann, a church had been erected in Halifax in which William Black preached for the first time on Easter Sunday, and at Barrington and Horton, there were several notable conversions, still through lack of missionaries, there could not be given any assistance to Cumberland, Annapolis, Digby, and the whole Province of New Brunswick. He was however greatly encouraged by a visit to Liverpool where the revival was in progress, and by good news from River Philip, where his eldest brother John had settled as a farmer, and who had begun to exercise his gifts as a local preacher, and with so great success, that at one meeting, ten persons rejoiced in having found Christ.

At the second District meeting held on October 15th, 1787, in Halifax, there were present, William Black, William Grandine, William Jessop, and the two brothers, John and James Mann, who had come from the United States to labor as missionaries in Nova Scotia. After the third District Meeting which was held in the May following, William Black spent about a month visiting Shelburne, Barrington, Cape Negro, Port La Tour and Port Medway, and when he returned to Halifax, he was greatly encouraged by the good work which had gone on under James Mann's labors during his absence. Meanwhile, the Rev. James Wray had been sent out from England with a general charge to superintend the work, as William Black and the other missionaries had not been ordained, and could not therefore dispense the sacraments, but the relations between Wray and Black became somewhat strained, and threatened seriously to interfere with the advance of the Kingdom of God. With good judgment and much patience William Black laid the whole matter before John Wesley, but without his counsel the breach was healed, and they labored again in harmony. James Wray felt that the duties of superintending the work in the Province were too onerous for him, and he requested to be relieved of the position, and Dr. Coke appointed William Black, Superintendent of the Methodist Church in the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland, James Wray removing to the West Indies, where he died in 1790.

The growth of Methodism was somewhat retarded by the fact that William Black had not been ordained, and consequently could not dispense the sacraments, and it was felt that his influence would greatly extend were he to assume all the responsibilities of a Christian minister. An opportunity was afforded him of being ordained, by the presence of Dr. Coke at the Conference held in Philadelphia in 1789, and accompanied by John and James Mann, who went for the same purpose, he attended the Conference, and on May 19th he was ordained a Deacon, and on the following day, an Elder. During a month spent in that city, he lost no opportunity of seeking to do good, and was cheered by learning of some being blest, among whom was a lady who had been converted under a sermon preached there by him, during his previous visit in 1784.

In a report sent to John Wesley during the year, there are shown gratifying results of the labors of the missionaries in Nova Scotia, as the church in Halifax had grown in numbers and spirituality, and throughout the Province there were about five hundred members, and with pardonable pride and joy, William Black remarks, how greatly he was comforted, as the church had grown in two years, "eight times larger, and eight times more serious and spiritual." The care of the churches pressed so heavily upon his soul, and there was so great need of additional missionaries to meet the growing demands of the wide field, that William Black hastened to Philadelphia to consult Dr. Coke, and had the pleasure of attending the Conference held in that city commencing on May 17th, 1791, at which the venerable Bishop Asbury presided. The following week, he attended the New York Conference, when six missionaries were appointed to labor in Nova Scotia. About three weeks after his return home, he went on a visit to Newfoundland, which was marked by a gracious revival, and the cause of Methodism in the ancient colony was saved.