William Beal
William Beal [1]
an English Wesleyan minister, wasborn at Devonport, in 1785. He was converted at the age of seventeen, and appointed teacher, by Dr. Coke, in the first Sunday-school established at Liskeard. He was received into the ministry in 1808, and for sixtyfour years he did the work of an evangelist with ability, purity, and fidelity. In the early part of his ministry, he endured privation and persecution as a pioneer home. missionary in a part of Devon where Methodism was scarcely known, among a people sunk in ignorance and apathy. He was a conscientious and faithful student, and his sermons were practical, rich in experience, pervaded throughout by deep thought. He pursued antiquarian studies with enthusiasm. He was affectionate and eminently simple-hearted and single-minded. He became a supernumerary in 1848, spent the evening of his days in genial activity, amid calm and sunshine, and died at Liskeard, June 18, 1872. He published the following works: The Fatal Tendency of False Principles; a sermon, 2d ed., with a Postscript to Rev. Dr. Cleeve (Exeter, 1819, 12mo): — Three Letters to Messrs Littlejohns and Moass, Committed to the Devon County Bridewellfor Preaching in an Unlicensed Place, etc. (ibid. 1823, 8vo): — Infant Baptism (Weymouth, 1823): — Remarks on the Abrahanic Covenant, Infant Baptism, and Christian Education (ibid. 1824, 8vo): — Two Lectures on Geology and Geognosy (Devonport, 1826, 8vo): — Letters to the Young on Religion and Mental Improvement (Bristol, 1830): — Geology, Geography, and Chemistry (London, 1830, 12mno): — The Fathers of the Wesley Family (Weymouth, 1833, 12mo; 2d edition, with many additions London, 1860, 8vo): — Biog. Notices of Revs. Bartholomew and John Wesley (ibid. 1839, 8vo): — God, through Christ, the Only Fount and Cause of Being and Well-being to Man (Portsmouth, 1845, 8vo): — Britain and the Gael; or, Notices of the Old and Successive Races, etc. (2d ed. Liskeard, 1860, 8vo). See Minutes of the British Conference, 1872, p. 34; Osborne, Wesleyan Bibliogr. p. 67; Everett, Wesleyan Takings, 1, 352.
