Welsh Journals

Ik A RECORD OF CHRISTIAN WORK AMONG THE CaMnistic Methodists or Presbyterians of Vol. II. No. 4.] APRIL, 1886. [Price One Penny. THE LATE MR. JOHN B. GOUGH. >■■+ »»■<■ Mr. J. B. Gough, though he spent most of his life in America, was of English birth, and was born August, 22, 1817, at Sandgate. When twelve years of age, he was sent with another family from his native village to America. His first two years in that country were spent on a farm, and then he went to New York, where he engaged himself to learn bookbinding. But as he grew up he became irregular in his habits, and being unable to obtain any other employment, joined a company of strolling actors, and it is said that one of the first pieces in which he appeared was entitled, "Departed Spirits; or, The Tempe¬ rance Hoax," in which prominent temperance men were caricatured and held up to scorn. The com¬ pany, however, soon fell to pieces, and he tramped hither and thither looking for other employment; but becoming more and more reckless and intemperate in his habits, was at length reduced to a pitiable con¬ dition of mental and physical prostration. At his very worst, however, he had one friend who followed him up—bent upon doing his utmost to rescue him from his old enemy, and in October, 1842, this friend persuaded him to attend a tempe¬ rance meeting, and sign the pledge. But such was his craving for drink that none but God and himself knew of the terrible agony he endured in trying to overcome this insatiable thirst, and once, yes, twice, he failed before he was enabled to obtain the fall mastery. In 1843 he began his career as a lecturer, and his fame soon spread, for in that first year he gave 383 addresses, travelled 6,840 miles, and obtained 15,218 signatures to the pledge. In 1853 he paid his first visit to England, and people of all sections of society flocked to hear him, and were swayed to and fro under his oratory, as a field of corn is swayed by the passing breeze. He remained in England over two yearg (Tim Illustration has been kindly lent by Messrs. Morgan & Scott.) The American as well as the English newspapers have abounded in expressions of the high esteem in which he was held. The New York Independent says : "His impassioned appeals for tempe¬ rance and purity and honour, illustrated from his own experience, have lifted many thousands out of a similar ruin. No orator of the day in either hemisphere had either his fire or his pathos. Others had more culture and grace, possibly more invective; but no one of them could cover, like him, the whole gamut of emotion, or whirl the hearer so suddenly and against his will from pas¬ sion to passion, from laughter to tears. No one had such a strong hold on the loftiest emotions, or grasped the heart and conscience so like a master. Not one word came from his lips that was not help¬ ful. He had the Christian passion for lifting men out of their own evil selves into the life of God. After all, eloquence, like every other high art, cannot reach its supreme attain¬ ment, except as it carries God and duty in its soul. It was genius, sanctified by a Ohristlike purpose, that made John B. Gough the greatest orator of his lecturing in most of the towns in the United Kingdom. In two or three years he returned a second time, and travelled extensively over all parts of the country, and received an enthusiastic welcome wherever he went. As we said in our last issue, he died in harness, having been struck down by a fatal attack of paralysis while lecturing on his favourite topic. Dr. Gould, one of the intimate friends of the deceased, said:—■ Our hero sleeps ; his matchless tongue is silent; other great and good men will carry on the work, but the world will never see a second John B. Gough. Superb as were his gifts, his highest powers were not in his gifts, but in him¬ self, in the great, noble, loving, guileless Christian man that was behind all.