The Life And Ministry Of Henry Fowler

John Gadsby, “Memoirs Of The Principal Hymn-Writers And Compilers Of The 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries”:

Henry Fowler was born in the parish of Yealmpton, Devonshire, Dec. 11th, 1779. Before he was 11 years old, he was put on trial with a person at Dartmouth, but as the family were dissenters, and as he thought the church people must be right, he was determined he would not serve his time there. Accordingly, he was removed, and apprenticed at Plymouth. He soon contracted the most awful habit of cursing and swearing. Indeed, he was placed in the very school of vice and filthy conversation, and was, he says, the devil’s tool. When he had turned 17, he got into company with a poor shoemaker, who induced him to read a little of the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and, as he read, explained to him the meaning of the various points. As the shoe-maker expounded, Fowler felt something unaccountably strange working in his mind, which he tried to put aside, but could not. When he left, he ruminated over what had passed, and sensibly felt that he was in a dangerous state. From this time he became more moral. He resolved and vowed, and entered into a covenant with God that he would love and serve him. Not being able to pray, he got some ready-made prayers, but none suited his case; so at last he threw them aside, and tried to pour out his heart in broken sentences, such as, “Lord, teach me thy way;” “Show me thy mercy;” “Save, Lord; I am lost;” “Pardon thou my sins.” Sometimes he felt a little melting of heart, but at other times great horror and trembling, and appeared to himself the vilest sinner on earth. He kept to his parish church, and still hate all dissenters, but the clergyman was evidently as dead as a stone. At length he was directed to go and hear Dr. Hawker, and the time to him was a memorable one. The whole discourse appeared to be directed to him. He was full of consternation, and went home with the full conviction that he never could be happy until he knew Christ for himself. He now began to read diligently the Scriptures and all the religious books that fell in his way. The light that shone in his heart and upon the Bible astonished him, and he was like a hind let loose. He found Christ to be precious in all his names, characters, and offices. He also found much liberty in prayer, and told the Lord he could not live unless he blessed him. Sometimes he thought he had gone too far in his freedom with the Lord, when passage after passage would be sent into his mind, until he stood amazed at the sovereign love of God manifested in Jesus and in his heart also. This lasted for several months. He now felt a strong desire to preach Christ to poor sinners, and the light which God had given him encouraged him to think that he would also qualify him for the great work of the ministry. In 1799 he went to London, where he had to labor with some of the worst of men. Innumerable snares and temptations surrounded him, but the Lord preserved him. Labor falling off, he went to Bristol, but in three months returned to London. In the summer of 1800, he had much bondage in his spirit. Hearing seemed to be of no use to him, and despair fast approached him. One day he made up his mind he would go for the last time to hear preaching, and he went to hear John Newton. The Lord was pleased to make the sermon, which was from Jonah 2:7, a special blessing to him, and his soul was taken once more out of prison. In October he went to Portsea, and two months afterwards to Plymouth Dock (now called Devonport.) One day, when he went to see some of his relations, a few friends met together for prayer, as there was no preaching; when an old disciple asked him to read a chapter, and, if anything struck him, to tell them about it. He did so, and continued for about half an hour. This was his first attempt to speak in the name of the Lord. The report of this soon spread abroad, and he was requested, soon afterwards, to speak at the Old Tabernacle, at Plymouth, which put him in great straits, for he could not refuse, and yet the thought of it was horrible to his feelings. His text was Zech. 9:11. He felt the sweetness of the words, his fears were in a great measure removed, and he was furnished with an abundance of language and appropriate matter. The news soon spread, and he was from that time frequently employed in preaching in Plymouth and the villages round. While at Plymouth, Mr. Fowler wrote a number of hymns, which were inserted in the “Gospel Magazine.” Many propositions were made to him to relinquish his trade, and give himself wholly to the ministry, but all in vain. All he begged of the Lord was, that he would give him plenty of business, and enable him to preach the gospel free of charge. In 1813, the providence of God appeared all against him, so that he was shut up every way and hemmed in on every side. He therefore made up his mind to go to Bristol for a week or two. Having made his arrangements, he met with a man who gave him a letter to take to Mr. Robins. Robins was from home, but a friend of his opened the letter, and the result was that Fowler preached to Robins’s people on the following Lord’s Day. While at Bristol he received a letter inviting him to go to Birmingham to supply for them. He went accordingly, being in August, 1813; and this ended in his being settled there at the place previously filled by John Bradford. In 1819, Mr. F. received an invitation to supply at a chapel in Conway Street, London. This chapel was opened for Mr. Robins by some old hearers of William Huntington, who had then departed to his eternal rest. In October Mr. F. went there, which event led to his finally removing to London, after the new chapel in Gower Street was built. The account from which I have taken most of the preceding was written by himself. The work is entitled, “Travels in the Wilderness.” Mr. Fowler breathed his last on Sunday, Dec. 16th, 1838. His departure was so easy that those around him were not aware his spirit had fled. The last time he preached was on Tuesday evening, November 15th. He was obliged to take to his bed on the Monday following, which, during the last fortnight, he only left to have made three or four times, on account of his great weakness. His cough was very violent at first, and as weakness increased his sufferings became very great. Not being able to lie on his back through a sense of suffocation seizing him when he did so, he sat up almost the whole time of his confinement to his bed. During the first part of his confinement, being asked how he felt in his mind, he said, “I am under shades and glooms. The Lord sees fit to lead me through much tribulation; but I know it is well with me whatever my frame of mind, and will be so at the last. I must come in on the old ground—redemption free, justification free, salvation free.” On Sunday, Dec. 2nd, when one of his family went up to see him, he said, “Satan has been very hard with me since my affliction, very strong with me; and at times I have had hard work to keep hold of the hem of the Saviour’s garment.” For the last fortnight his mind was in a far more happy frame. He seemed quite tranquil, and many times expressed his firm reliance on Christ, and his assurance of Christ’s love to his soul. At one time he sang this verse:

“If thou, my Jesus, still be nigh,

Cheerful I live, and joyful die;

Secure, when mortal comforts flee,

To find ten thousand worlds in thee!”

On Dec. 15th he was much worse, and symptoms of approaching dissolution appeared. In the evening he took his wife’s hand, and said, “My dear, I feel quite happy! Christ is very precious to me;” and added, “I think I have been wandering a good deal this evening; but what I now say I speak from the real feelings of my heart.” He asked the time, and being told, he said, “Not later! Lord, when, when—,” and other words which could not be distinguished. These expressions were uttered about three hours before his departure. Towards the closing scene his voice changed, and he spoke with great difficulty. At this time he said solemnly, “Christ is the substance and end of the law.” Soon after, “Come, Jesus, come quickly;” and repeated the word “Come” several times. The last words that could be distinguished as connected were, “My God, my God, take me to thee to see thy face, and sing thy praise.” He spoke several times after that apparently in prayer, saying, “Jesus, my God,” and “Come, dear Jesus,” his countenance looking very beautiful at the time, every trace of his recent suffering being gone. After a little silence, with a long sigh, he breathed his last, having just completed his 59th year. Mr. Fowler was not a Baptist. Soon after Gower Street Chapel, London, was built, Mr. F. became the pastor. A clause was inserted in the trust-deed to the effect that the first minister that was settled there should decide whether the cause should be a Baptist one or not. Mr. F., however, on being chosen, declined that responsibility. I believe his conscience would not let him fill up the vacant clause against Baptism, whatever might have prevented his doing so in favor of it. Some time after his death, a man named Blackstock,^[1] who had once professed to be a Baptist, but who had on two or three occasions found it convenient to change his sentiments, was appointed his successor; and he, less scrupulous, filled up the clause by inserting “mixed communion.” This time-serving step was followed by the marked displeasure of God. The people fell off, until they were unable to pay the interest, and the mortgagee sold the chapel; by which means £2,600, that had been subscribed towards its erection, was entirely sacrificed, and the chapel became private property. It was afterwards, however, sold to the people, or their successors rather, for whom it was originally built, and is now a Strict Baptist cause. Mr. F. published a small volume of Original Hymns in 1818, and a second in 1824. Also a Selection.

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[1] “Mr Blackstock was for some years pastor of a Strict Baptist Church at Wolverhampton. A minister was wanted by a Baptist church at Lakenheath; but the principal wealthy supporters of the chapel were not Baptists. Mr. B. went and settled over them and turned the church into Open Communion; but in a very short time his two main supporters were struck by death. They died within a week of each other. It was a solemn stroke. Mr. B. then had to leave. He then professed to have seen his error, in having renounced Strict Communion, and wrote to Mr Gadsby, stating that God had shown him displeasure, his hand having gone out against him in more ways than one. Mr. G. Did not reply to his letter, but he subsequently met him at the house of a friend. Meantime Mr. B. had been supplying for a month at Gower Street, and then for three months at Soho Chapel, Oxford Street, where he quite expected to settle. The deacons, however, do not appear to have been satisfied about his principles. They were Strict Baptists, and did not wish to have the seeds of disunion sown in the church; and they therefore catechised him as to his vacillation. His answer was, “I would sooner lose my right arm than change to Open Communion again.” And upon one occasion he is reported to have said in the Soho pulpit that “the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper without previous baptism was like a cow with only one horn.” At his interview with Mr. Gadsby, above referred to, Mr. G. said, “I give you my hand upon your confession; but at the same time I stand in doubt of you! I believe, if the people at Gower Street gave you a call on Open Communion principles, you would accept of the call.” “O, Mr. Gadsby!” Mr. B. Replied, “you do not know what I have suffered, or you would think differently.” “Well,” said Mr. G., “time will prove.” In a very short time after this, Mr. B. Having been rejected at Soho Chapel, the very thing occurred which Mr. G., had predicted. Mr. G., therefore, positively refused to preach in Gower Street Chapel any more, as he could not countenance such an unstable man. Mr. B. Left in MS, his autobiography, which was published alter his death. I speak deliberately when I say he was not honest enough to publish it during Mr. Gadsby’s life, or during his own life; for in it he charges Mr. Gadsby and others with having persecuted him; whereas, all that they did was to decline countenancing him by preaching where he preached, on account of his inconsistency. To me, whether in the character of a biographer or a Christian, it matters not whether a man be a Churchman, a Baptist, or a Pedobaptist, if he be a true Christian, and consistent in his profession; but a time-server must call for and will have the displeasure of God. (Jas. 1:8.) Had it not been for Mr. B.’s book, I should not have referred to the subject at all.</p>