THE REV HUGH MNEILE, MA.

Incumbents of S. Judis Church, Liverpeel.

Hugh Me hiele

Eng by RICHARD SMITH, from a Painting by T.C.THOMPSON, R.HA.

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THE

CHURCH MAGAZINE.

No. 7.]

JULY, 1839.

[VOL. I.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. H. M'NEILE, M. A.,

INCUMBENT OF ST. JUDE'S CHURCH, LIVERPOOL.

THE Reverend Hugh M'Neile, the eloquent Divine whose portrait we have the pleasure of herewith presenting to our readers, was born in Ireland, in July, 1795, at Ballycastle, in the county of Antrim. His father, who died but a short time ago, was a man of considerable wealth and influence as a magistrate and a country gentleman. He was a grand juror for above thirty years; and in 1836, honourably served the office of high sheriff.

The subject of this memoir was educated at home, under a private tutor. At the age of fifteen he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he succeeded in taking academical honours in the science part of the course. He took the degree of B.A. in 1814, and his Master's degree in 1822. He afterwards served the requisite terms at the King's Inns in Dublin, and at Lincoln's Inn in London, with the view of being called to the Irish bar-a profession in which his great talents and commanding oratory would unquestionably have raised him to the highest eminence, but they were destined to be employed in a far nobler work.

Previously, however, to taking Holy Orders, he travelled on the continent with his uncle, Lieutenant-General M'Neile, of the East India Company's Service; with whom he also resided a considerable time in Bath, visiting London and different watering-places in their seasons. During this period he was introduced to many well-known characters, and experienced much kindness and attention, especially from the late Mr. Wilberforce and the late Lord Gambier.

During his travels on the continent, a circumstance occurred which it may be neither out of place nor uninteresting to mention here. While on a tour in Switzerland, in the summer of 1816, he was taken suddenly and dangerouly ill at a country Inn, and, humanly speaking, had his life saved by Henry Brougham, Esq., now Lord Brougham, who happened to be in the house at the time, and hearing that a young man was unwell, benevolently volunteered his medical skill, and prescribed successfully. His Lordship, we dare say, has now no recollection of the circumstance, but it is not probable that his patient will ever forget it.

Mr. M'Neile's first religious impressions, at least the first which we presume he recognised as such, were received by reading the Holy Scriptures in private. He had enjoyed the great privilege of having been brought up in the good old fashion of honouring the Lord's day, by laying aside the business of the week, and reading the Bible and the Prayer Book, as well

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as attending church. In accordance with this admirable custom, worthy of universal adoption, Blackstone, Coke on Littleton, and all other works of a similar character, were regularly put aside on Sundays, and the Word of God read; but, it appears, without any conscious effects for several years.

The good seed however was sown, and, watered with the dew of Heaven, at length brought forth fruit. In the years 1817 and 1818, Mr. M'Neile's mind became so deeply impressed with a sense of the vast importance of religion, and with the conviction that it was his duty to become a Minister in the Church of Christ, that, not having actually embarked in any calling (1 Cor. vii. 20), he gave up all thoughts of becoming a barrister, and determined on entering the service of the Lord of Hosts, that he might preach the Gospel of Christ to his fellow-sinners, and fulfil all the other duties of the priestly office.

In the year 1820, therefore, he was admitted to Deacon's Orders by the late Archbishop of Dublin, the celebrated Dr. Magee, author of the invaluable work on the Atonement, and then Bishop of Raphoe. The Curacy to which Mr. M'Neile was ordained, was that of Stranorlar, in the county of Donegal; and in the year following he was ordained a Priest. His ministry in that parish was, under the blessing of Almighty God,wonderfully successful, both in rousing slumbering Churchmen and in bringing back dissenters to the fold of Christ. In proceeding in his Master's work, he manifested that faithfulness and boldness for which he is so highly distinguished, and resisted all the compromising schemes of education propounded by the Kildare-Place and Hibernian Societies, and others who disclaimed what they termed proselytism as uncharitable, and omitted Scriptural instruction (beyond the bare reading), in order, as they unwisely thought, to conciliate all classes and bring all to school. Mr. M'Neile had a strictly Church and Bible school filled with children, all learning the Catechism and the Liturgy, and thus laying a solid foundation for becoming definite Christians and loyal subjects. About two years after he received Holy Orders, Mr. M'Neile was married to one of the daughters of the late Archbishop of Dublin, and was presented by Henry Drummond, Esq., to the Rectory of Albury, in Surrey, where he remained, occasionally visiting and preaching in London, with great effect, until the year 1834.

During the latter part of his residence at Albury, Mr. Drummond, the patron of the living, embraced, and indefatigably laboured in the parish to propagate the absurd, not to say heretical notions of the late Mr. Edward Irving. And many of those with whom the excellent Rector had been in habits of the greatest intimacy were in like manner entangled in the same snare. In resisting them, both in public and in private, which Mr. M'Neile resolutely did, although we believe he was sorely beset by ladies as well as by gentlemen, he had a difficult, delicate, and we can easily believe, an extremely painful task to perform.

In 1834, the perpetual Curacy of St. Jude's Church in Liverpool was offered to him; although at a considerable sacrifice of income, he generously accepted it as opening a much wider field for useful exertion, and as taking him within easier access to his relatives, especially his aged and beloved parents in the north of Ireland. Of the success of his ministry, and of the great influence which his powerful talents have obtained in Liverpool, the large congregation which constantly crowd his church, and the deservedly high estimation in which he is held, afford very pleasing evidence. As a faithful and courageous servant of our blessed Lord, and as one of the first orators of the age, Mr. M'Neile is justly respected and admired throughout the country. Whenever it is known that he is to preach or speak anywhere

in London or the vicinity, crowds assemble to listen to his sound and admirable sermons and his brilliant speeches. His sound reasoning, pointed humour, and dignified and graceful manner, conspire to render him one of the most pleasing and effective speakers we have ever heard.

Mr. M'Neile is the author of several publications, which are fraught with the same cogent argumentation and powerful eloquence. They are so well known and so highly esteemed, that if even we had room it would be a work of supererogation to discuss their merits. They will richly repay a repeated perusal, and will deservedly obtain even a wider spread than they at present possess.

This excellent man has a large family of five sons and three daughters, who, with three sons who passed to the heavenly world in their infancy, make altogether eleven children. Long may his valuable life be spared a blessing to the Church, to his family, and to the world at large.

DISSENT versus THE CHURCH.-No. II.

THE style in which the dissenters write is so peculiar, and their reasoning so unfounded and complicated, that to write a complete and effectual reply to any of their controversial works, requires much more space and time than at first sight appears to be necessary. Hence, our first paper in answer to Mr. Irons was wholly occupied with one paragraph of the preface to his little work. We believe, however, that we so completely destroyed and dissipated every thing like argument in it and about it, that not a word more was requisite to satisfy every unprejudiced mind that the whole was founded upon sand, and required but the application of truth and sound argument to bring it all down together to the ground. We shall invariably pursue the same course in all our controversy with the enemies of the Church; because it is the only way of satisfying the intelligent and reflecting part of the community, and consequently the most likely to render essential and lasting service to the glorious cause we have in hand. To skim over the surface of

. reason.

what an enemy writes, and treat it with lightness or ridicule, however much it may deserve it, will not stand the test of sober reflection. Whenever, therefore, we take up a work, a paragraph, or a sentence, for the purpose of answering it, we will never leave it until we have uncovered every argument it contains, implies, or insinuates, and hunted it from one hiding-place to another, and driven it completely beyond the bounds of Scriptural and sound This is the more necessary, because the argumentation of our enemies is so plausible, and often so complicated, that far too many, feeling themselves unable to answer it, are led away by it; and because even many Churchmen, who prefer the constitution and doctrines of the Church, some on one account, and some on another, still think that there really must be some little truth at least in the opinions, statements, and religions of the various sects. Hence, it becomes absolutely necessary, if we value the spiritual safety and welfare of our fellow-creatures, to unravel the work of our opponents to the last stitch, to demonstrate the unfounded nature of their assumptions, and expose their fallacies and sophistries to our friends, and to all within the reach of our influence. This requires not only time and space, but hard labour. Not that it is hard to detect their misrepresentations and false reasonings, far from it, for nothing is easier; but so to draw them out, strip them of their garnishings, and expose them nakedly in all their real deformity, and to do this in such order, and in such clear and plain language, that nobody can mistake our meaning, requires much