Henry Moore
Henry Moore [1]
a Wesleyan preacher and writer of considerable note, and an associate of the founder of Methodism, was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1751. He had heard Wesley in his childhood, and had at once become impressed with the preacher's bearing and earnestness. On removing to London he often attended the preaching of Madan and Charles Wesley, and the religious impressions of his early childhood were renewed; yet he failed to identify himself with the Methodists until, after his return to Ireland, he heard Smyth, a nephew of an archbishop, who had left friends and position to preach the simple Methodist theology. This "good man," as Moore himself delighted to call him persuaded Moore finally to cast his lot with the Wesleyans. His family opposed the step, but Moore persisted, and he was even permitted to introduce domestic worship among them. He at once gave himself to the work. He visited the prisons, braving fever and pestilence, and the still harder trial of agonizing sympathy with felons condemned to the gallows. After a while he was induced to exhort, and in a short time to preach, His audience gathered in a deserted weaver's shop, which was furnished for the purpose with seats and a desk. He soon gathered the masses, and in a very brief period had an organized society of twenty-six members. He was zealous in good works, and rich in his personal religious experiences. Wesley's attention was called to Moore, and in 1780 he ordered him to take the field as an itinerant of the Londonderry Circuit. He soon progressed in his work, and finally Wesley called him to London, where he became the constant companion of the great religious reformer of the 18th century. The two men of God met together in the morning at five o'clock to answer letters; they travelled together, and Moore became the counsellor of the Connection.
Wesley himself had so high an estimation of Moore's talents and character that he endeavored to procure him ordination in the national Church; and, when disappointed in this, he himself set Moore aside for the sacred work, assisted by two presbyters of the establishment, Peard Dickinson and James Creighton. Visiting Ireland now and then, he helped to build up the interests of Methodism in that country. Indeed, one of the principal Methodist chapels in Dublin now stands a monument of his successful labors in the Irish capital. Like the other Methodist preachers, Moore frequently addressed the people in the open air, and shared the usual persecutions of his ministerial brethren. When the controversies arose in the Wesleyan Connection on Church polity, Moore proved himself worthy of the trust reposed in him by Wesley. Conservative by nature, he had so carefully cultivated his judgment as to make a competent counsellor for the Methodist body, and to his untiring efforts the successful issue of the conferences and controversies from 1791 to 1797, resulting in the definite outlines of a Wesleyan polity, are largely due (see Wesleyan Magazine, 1845, page 314; Smith, History of Wesleyan Methodism, volume 2, Append. 9; Life, by Mrs. Smith, ann. 1794, page 164). Wesley's estimate of Moore is especially manifest in the fact that he suffered Moore to be a witness to his conference with the lady of his early affection, who, when the Christian laborer in his eightyfifth year happened to be near her, had sent word for his presence (Stevens, Hist. of Methodism, 2:406); and also in his appointment of this companion of his youth as one of the trustees of his manuscripts and books. Moore's love for Wesley is manifest in the biography which he furnished of the founder of Methodism in conjunction with Dr. Coke (q.v.). Henry Moore lived to be "the last survivor of the men whom Wesley had ordained;" and by his pen and his preaching " promoted Methodism through nearly seventy years, and died in his ninety- third year April 27,1843, its most venerable patriarch" (Stevens). Besides a Life of John and Charles Wesley and the Family (1824, 8vo), Moore published, Private Life and Moral Rhapsody (1795, 4to): — Reply to a Pamphlet entitled "Considerations on a Separation of the Methodists from the Established Church" (1794, 8vo): — Memoir of Henry Fletcher. See Life of Rev. Henry Moore, by Mrs. Richard Smith (daughter of Adam Clarke) (Lond. 1844, 8vo); Stevens, History of Methodism, 2:190 sq.; 3:52, 56, 75; Smith, History of Wesleyan Methodism, volume 1, book 2, chapter 5-7; Tyerman, Life of Wesley, volume 3 (see Index). (J.H.W.)
