20. Samuel Medley

20. Samuel Medley At Cheshunt in Hertfordshire on the 23rd of June 1738 Samuel Medley first saw the light. Educated by Mr. Tong of Enfield he made rapid progress. His gifts, desires and friends were of a literary rather than a commercial character and the unfortunate decision to apprentice him to an Oilman in London came to an abrupt end when war broke out in 1755. He entered the Royal Navy as midshipman on board the Buckingham. He excelled at sea and quickly gained the esteem of both Captain and Officers, yet he was left to the profanity of most seamen and indeed confesses to awful lengths of sin. He tells us that ``he had neither the fear of God nor man before his eyes.’ Then sudden flashes of conscience pulled him up and he wished he was a dog with no soul to be saved. But God’s appointed time to arrest him in his mad career soon arrived. In an engagement with the enemy he was seriously wounded in the leg, the muscles and a great part of the calf being blown away and the loss of blood quite copius. He now began to pray in earnest for the wound was serious. His prayer was quickly answered and the surgeon who saw every appearance of gangrene at one time declared after fur­ther examination that the change was little less than a miracle. His serious religious impressions soon passed away as his health improved and it was not till, after returning to the house of his Grandfather, that God deepened the work of conversion. Against his inclination but in order not to displease Mr. Tong he listened to a sermon {onIsaiah 42:6-7} by Dr. Watts. At first he listened without interest for the whole idea was irksome to him but suddenly as Dr. Watts touched upon the open­ing of blind eyes, the words sank deep into his heart and true repentance was given to him. Soon he went to hear George Whitefield and Gifford and other godly men and God blessed him with the comforts of the Gos­pel. In 1766 Dr. Gifford felt sure that Medley had gifts for the ministry, he himself admitted to being exer­cised to preach, and in 1767 he accepted a call from the Baptist Church at Watford, Herts, where he remained till 1772 when he removed to Liverpool.

He preached annually in Whitefield’s places of worship and was happy to know that his labours were blessed to many. It is noteworthy that the scope of his ministry was ``to humble the pride of man, exalt the Grace of God in his Salvation and promote real holiness in heart and life.’

Toward the end of his life he trod a path of great suffering but when called to ``cross the river’ he was able to say ``Dying is sweet work! sweet work! My heavenly Father, I am looking up to my dear Jesus, my God, my portion, my all in all.’ And then a little before he died he said, ``Glory, Glory, Home, Home!’ and with­out a struggle or a groan he was taken to heaven on July 17, 1799.