CLARKE, ADAM, LLD., one of the most esteemed of the early ministers among the Wesleyan Methodists, was born in 1762. His parents resided in the north of Ireland. They appear to have been persons of respectable character ; and by his mother, who was a native of Scotland, he appears to have become early imbued with a deep sense of the value of high devotional sentiment in union with religious knowledge. Of education, properly scholastic or systematic, he appears to have received little or none, and the want of it gave a character, and that not a favourable one, to the learning which by his own unwearied exertions he afterwards acquired.
As soon as his mind began to develop its peculiarities, it appeared that Adam Clarke was extremely eager after knowledge, and possessed within himself resources which would enable him to overcome very formidable obstacles. Placed with a linen manufacturer, who lived in the neighbourhood of his father, to learn the trade, he soon found that he was in a situation which afforded no means of gratifying his desire for knowledge. lie determined to change the mode of life which had been marked out for him, and he returned to his home. Methodism had been introduced into the part of Ireland in which he resided. His father and mother belonged to that eociety ; and a Mr. Breeden, one of Mr. Wesley's earliest ministers, was a friend and the religious instructor of the family, and to him at this period of his life he seems to have owed much. The religious meetings and classes of the new sect afforded to the preachers a ready opportunity of becoming acquainted with the character and mental capacity of the young men connected with the society, and Such as were suited to the work and were willing to devote themselves to the ministry were gladly received. The union of considerable natural powers with no mean attainments, considering the great disadvantages under which he lay, and of the love of study, with a mind eminently devotional, pointed out young Clarke to the Methodist preachers who frequented his father's house, as one who might be very useful in the ministry among the people with whom his family had formed their religious connection. Their impression that this was the course of life pointed
out for him, was communicated to the great father and director of Methodism. The result was that Clarke removed to Eugland, and was admitted into the school which Wesley had founded at Kings wood near Bristol. He now gave himself up wholly to the acquisition of such knowledge as might be useful in his calling. Besides what formed the kind of instruction which was imparted to the students at Kingwood, he undertook to teach himself other things; and it was while here that he began the study of the Hebrew language, which was the commencement of that course of oriental study in which he afterwards spent much time, and made considerable progress.
The time soon came when he was to leave this school, and enter on the duties of an itinerant or travelling preacher. He was accus tomed to relate with pride and pleasure that be received his coin minion to go forth from the mouth of Mr. Wesley himself. There was a peculiar and touching affectionateness in the old man's bene diction. The circuit, as it is called, to which he was appointed was a tract of country near Bradford in Wiltshire. Thus in 1782 he became a Methodist preacher, and so continued to the time of his death. In the first twenty years he resided in various parts of the kingdom, but afterwards he lived, for the most part, in or about London, or at an estate which was purchased for him in Lancashire.
In his ministerial character he was singularly acceptable and usefuL His preaching attracted crowds. He advanced in influence and repu tation in the body of Christians to whom be belonged : and for many of the latter years of his life he was regarded as one of the chief lights and brightest ornaments of that religious community.