The Life And Death Of William Vaughan

Gospel Standard 1887:

The Last Days Of William Vaughan, For Twenty-Seven Years Pastor Of The Baptist Church At Bradford, Yorkshire, Who Departed This Life On March 22^nd, 1887, Aged 75. 

He was born in Shropshire in the year 1811, and at the early age of four was the subject of divine impressions which never left him. From early life a work of grace was begun and carried on in his soul, as will be seen in the account written by himself, which will shortly be published, together with Mr. A. B. Taylor’s address at the chapel at Bradford on the day of the funeral; also a funeral sermon preached by myself on the following Sunday morning.

I have known our ‘departed friend for over forty years. The first time I heard him preach the gospel was at Hebdenbridge, in Yorkshire, and his ministry in those days, was made a blessing to my soul; and many others have spoken to me of the power that attended the word spoken by him; for his ministry was not in “word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.”

In his own account of the Lord’s dealings with him he speaks of many trying things he met with and had to pass through up to the age of twenty-two. At about that time the late Mr. W. Gadsby preached in Mr. Kent’s chapel in Liverpool, where Mr. Vaughan first heard him; and he was the instrument, in the hands of God, of the deliverance of his soul out of bondage and distress. This Mr. Vaughan mentions in his own account as a special manifestation of God’s mercy to his soul. I have received an interesting account of our departed friend’s dying sayings from one of his members who was much with him, and I think this will be more profitable to the church of God than anything I can say of him.

From the time he had heard Mr. Gadsby it is believed he attended a room in Templer’s Hall, Liverpool, where at that time a few of the Lord’s people met. On June 23rd, 1840, he came before the church at Byrom Street Chapel, and related his experience, which was well received, and on July 24th he was baptized in Great Crossland Street Chapel, Liverpool, by Mr. Potter, of London. He would then be about 20 years of age. He has left no record of these things, nor of the following dates and particulars, for which I am indebted to Mr. George Featherbridge, one of the present deacons at Shaw Street Chapel, Liverpool, who has been at some trouble in searching the church book for them.

I will now give a few particulars respecting Mr. Vaughan being sent out by the church at Liverpool to preach. On Nov. 3rd, 1842, a Mr. Giles was the pastor, and he, being persuaded that Mr. V. had abilities to preach the gospel, named the matter to the church, and they invited him to preach on week evenings in order that they might have the opportunity of hearing him. Accordingly he did so, and on Friday evening, Jan. 27th, 1843, the church met, and votes were taken relative to Mr. Vaughan being sent out to preach wherever a door might be opened for him to do so. Thirty-seven members voted in his favour and six against him. On Sept. 28th, 1854, it was resolved that he should be invited to become the pastor of the church, which invitation he accepted, and remained the settled pastor over them for about four years, when troubles arose among the people, and he was asked to resign, with which he complied, as the following letter, dated, May 15th, 1858, will show:

“Brethren and Sisters in the Lord, I hereby resign my office as pastor among you. Wishing you every blessing,

“Yours Truly, 

“WILLIAM VAUGHAN.”

From this time he supplied many of the Particular Baptist churches in Lancashire and Yorkshire until the year 1860, when he received a call from the church at Bradford, which he accepted. The first sermon he preached after he had accepted their invitation was on the first Lord’s Day in Oct., 1860, when his text was: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark 16:15, 16.)

The following particulars of his last days were sent to me by the friend before mentioned:

“I called to see Mr. Vaughan on Thursday, March 17th, and he was very glad to see me, and spoke very kindly to me. He said he had no great joy, but felt a firm resting on the finished work of the dear Redeemer; and that what astonished him most was that Satan was so quiet; for he was not permitted to harass, or even come near him. He said he could never remember a time before when Satan did not cease to plague him in some way or another; and he could not understand it unless it was that he had shot all his arrows at him whilst he was well; and then remarked, ‘Satan knows that I hate him, and he hates me; and he also knows that he can never destroy a child of God.

“Then he went on to speak of what a mystery it was to him that God should call a poor, illiterate thing like himself to speak in his Name. I asked him if he ever wrote a sermon out and carried it in his pocket. He said, ‘No; never in all my life; and the Lord would not even suffer me to put the heads and tails of a sermon down. Many, many times I have gone out on a Sabbath hard and dry, and without a text, feeling as if the Lord would confound me before the people, and Satan telling me that it was nothing but presumption for me to preach; so that I feared I should have to tell the people that I had nothing to say; and many a time I have not had a text until the last two lines of the second hymn have been sung, and then the Lord has dropped a word into my soul, and made it a blessed time to me and also to the people.’ He then told me about having to preach at Rochdale, and how tried and exercised he was about it, and begged of the Lord to send some one else; but there was no alternative but for him to go. He made up his mind not to be late, but the train was delayed at every station, at which he became very rebellious, and the devil set upon him, and tried to make it out that it was presumption for him to go, and that the Lord never intended him to preach. He said he did not know what to do, and wished he had never been born. He really felt that to go would only be to make a fool of himself, yet something said, ‘ Go; for have I ever forsaken thee?’ Then he said, ‘I will go just once more, and if the Lord does not appear for me I will give it up.’ When he reached the chapel it was half-past eleven, and it had been raining so heavily that he was wet through, and, in his feelings, more like a devil than a saint. The people had been waiting for him, and therefore he was compelled to go into the pulpit; when the Lord appeared and blessed him. His text was: ‘ All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.’ (Rom. 8:28.) When he came down from the pulpit the friends gathered round him and said what a good time it had been to them, and told him that when he came again to Rochdale, if the Lord thus favoured them, they would not mind him coming late.

“On the 18th I stayed with him all night. He was very restless, and we thought he would not live until morning; but although his sufferings were so great, not one murmur escaped his lips. He said how good the Lord was to him, and how light his pains were to what his Lord and; Master suffered; and hoped God would grant hi m patience to bear it without murmuring. He then quoted the two first verses of hymn 275:

“‘Let me, thou sovereign Lord of all,

Low at thy footstool humbly fall,’ &c.,

and spake a little of the safety of the Lord’s people. I said, ‘If we could get you down to the chapel, you could preach as well as ever;’ for his voice was clear and strong. He replied, ‘If the Lord were to give me a text I could; for while life shall last I hope my tongue will never cease to speak of these blessed things;’ and then remarked, ‘A child of God can never fall out of the covenant of grace.’ He asked me if ever I saw such a helpless wretch as he had become. I said, ‘What! A wretch still?’ He replied, ‘Yes, and ever will be while in the body. But did you ever see one like me, such a vile, sinful character? I do not wonder at the wicked, who have no fear of God before their eyes, committing suicide. O the goodness of God in helping me; for hundreds of times I have been tempted to that act; so much so that I have had to hide my razor. O the many times I have wished I had never been born! But if some people were to hear me talk thus they would say that I was only fib for a Lunatic Asylum.’

“He then said, ‘I do not know how it is that I have never been enabled to address God as my Father. I always felt that I could rather address him as my Lord and my God; but Christ, in teaching his disciples to pray, said, When ye pray, say, Our Father. Therefore I will call him Father; for I am his child and he is my Father.’ Then he broke out, saying, ‘O blessed Father, do not delay thy coining! Hasten thy chariot wheels, and come and take me to be with thee. O how long thou art in coming! Come, blessed Jesus, and take a poor old pilgrim to thyself. Hast thou not bought me and paid the price of my redemption? And I hope thou hast prepared a heaven for me.’ Then he repeated the whole of hymn 471:

“‘Prepare me, gracious God,

To stand before thy face,’ &c,

upon the last verse of which he laid particular stress. Mrs. Vaughan remarked that she hoped the Lord would hear prayer, and come and take him home. He said, ‘Yes, and yon with me.’ She remarked, ‘But you would not know me.’ He replied, ‘I should know you as a sister in Christ; and that is sufficient for me.’ Then he began to be restless, and his sufferings were very great. He kept wanting to be turned, and to have something given him to drink. I asked him what he would have. He said, ‘A drop of pure water.’ This being given to him immediately at his request, I remarked, ‘That is how it is spiritually; for the promise runs: Ask, and ye shall receive.’ He replied, ‘Nay, nay. It was so when the Lord first set my soul at liberty; for then all the promises were mine, and I had nothing to do but to go to him, and he granted all my requests; but since then I have had to beg for days and months together for a crumb, and been glad of it when it came.’

“He was very patient, and not a murmur escaped his lips. He would sometimes say how kind we were to him, and what should he have done if it were not for kind friends. He was anxious to know who would sit up with him at night, and said, ‘Yon would ease my pains if you could; but neither you nor the physician can do this; but there is one Physician that understands my case. Bless his Name, he never turned one away as incurable, nor ever will. What a mercy that it is all of grace from first to last.’ He asked me if I wanted to know the sum and substance of his religion. I said, ‘Yes.’ He replied, ‘I will give it you in these words:

‘”A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,

On thy kind arms I fall.

Be thou my strength and righteousness,

My Jesus, and my all.”

At another time he broke out in prayer: “O blessed Father, thou hast promised to hear prayer. Hear poor, unworthy me. Lord, I desire once more to bring before thee the little cause at Darfield Street. Do thou bless every individual member. I cannot bring them one by one as I have been wont to do; but thou knowest their names, and those that are thine. Lord, bless the weak as well as the strong; also the tried and the tempted. Bless the lambs of thy fold. O blessed Jesus, there may be those who have some peculiar trouble, and they think that none of thy children have a cross like they have. Lord, help them to bring it to thee. Bless such as these in thy little church; and many of those that are hovering ronnd about it, who love thy truth and thy people, but have not cast in their lot with them, Lord, bless them. And do thou bless the deacons with wisdom and power from on high, and grant that they may be kept in unity and peace one with another. O do not suffer the enemy to get through the hedge amongst them; but be with them in all their trials; and as their trials will be many, let their deliverances be many also; for in thine own time thou wilt deliver them out of them all. Thou that didst deliver Noah from the flood, Lot from Sodom, Jacob from Esau, Joseph from Potiphar, the three Hebrew children from the fire, and thy poor worm from the adversary, do thou be with them, and in thine own time send them a man after thine own heart, one that has been taught well the plague of his own evil nature.”

“On Saturday, the 19th, many of the brethren and friends came to see him, and he had something to say to them all. It was like poor old Jacob blessing his children. He was favoured with a door of utterance, and it was good to be there. As the friends came to his bed-side his face shone. I should think he scarcely ceased talking for several hours, and as one and another called to see him, he said, ‘Let them come up. How kind it is of them to call and see me!’ This was the more remarkable, as on that day he was racked with pain from morning till night. Towards evening, on asking him if he was any easier, he said, ‘No, I feel the outward man decay, but the inward man is renewed day by day;’ and prayed, saying, ‘O Lord, thou knowest my frame; thou rememberest that I am dust.’ Then, turning to me, he said, ‘Joseph, I always make an addition to that text, and say, ‘sinful dust.’

“Sunday was a very quiet day with him. He said but very little, and seemed to be dozing most of the time. Once he said he could not understand how it was that the Lord was so long in taking down the poor tabernacle. On Monday he was in great pain, and what he suffered none can tell, yet he never murmured, but seemed to be waiting for the Lord to come; for he repeated the verse commencing

“‘Weary of earth, myself, and sin,’ &c.

and also parts of 202, 286, 322, 472, and 483, which seemed to be very sweet to his soul. On Monday night we thought every breath would be his last. I spoke to him many times, and tried, in my poor, feeble way, to say a word of comfort. About half-past six in the morning I said to him, ‘Mr. Vaughan, is there a light in the valley?’ He opened his eyes, looked at me, and said, in a feeble voice,’ I am on the Bock’ I replied, ‘One of old said, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.’ (Ps. 23:4.) He replied,’’Tis only a shadow.’ These were the last words I heard him speak. ‘Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace.'” (Ps. 37:37.)

David Smith