A. B. Taylor. XI

After thirty-eight years at Rochdale Road, Taylor came to die. He was taken back to his comfortable cottage near Manchester, and there he was confined to bed on July 1st 1887. He was weakening, and on July 5th, in the morning, he repeated the verse:

Let me not murmur or repine
Under this trying stroke of Thine,
But bow beneath affliction's rod,
Be still, and know that Thou art God.

As he lay dying Taylor's mind often went to the great hymns of the faith. He had been a good singer, and taken great care in the singing of the congregation. No wonder that part of his life should comfort him on his death bed. Tellingly one of those was the Scottish metrical version of the 23rd Psalm, taught to him by his mother when he was still a small child.

Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me,
And in God's house for evermore,
My dwelling-place shall be.

In the hot summer he suffered terribly, quoting once those lines,

Though painful at present, 'twill cease before long,
And then, O how pleasant, the conqueror's song!

"Patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer," he quoted.
"How a tempting devil hunts about for the precious life," he reflected on another occasion, "but he can't find it! It is hid with Christ in God."

Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,
The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue;
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,
Has won my affections and bound my soul fast.

Thy mercy in Jesus exempts me from hell,
Its glories I'll sing and its wonders I'll tell."
And he kept on doing so, even in the pain, until he could speak no more. His last words were "It is well, it is well." Then he lifted his left arm and pointed upwards whispering, "I am going."
That was on Saturday 6th August, the end of his struggles, during which he was supported by the grace of God, came in the early hours of the following morning. He passed away peacefully at a quarter to four in the morning of Lord's Day 7th August, 1887. One of the hymns he quoted in his last illness sums up his hope:

And when this heart and flesh shall fail,
And mortal vigour cease,
I shall possess within the veil
A life of joy and peace.

A. B. Taylor's funeral service was held in Rochdale Road chapel, Manchester. Over 800 people were present in the chapel for the service. George Chandler of Accrington, speaking at the committal, said, "Perhaps the leading feature in our friend's ministry was the person, work, sufferings, blood, righteousness and offices of the Lord Jesus Christ."

And so ought to be the leading feature of every Christian ministry.

[The main sources of this essay are S. F. Paul, 'Further History of the Gospel Stand Baptists' Vol. 4 (Brighton, 1961). Contains accounts of Manchester and Accrington Churches; B. A. Ramsbottom (ed.) 'Six Remarkable Ministers' (Harpenden, Gospel Standard Trust, 1994). A. B. Taylor's life, mostly by himself, is to be found on pages 85-137; and B. A. Ramsbottom, 'William Gadsby' (Harpenden, Gospel Standard Trust, 2003)]

Illustration: Rochdale Road chapel in about 1960. This chapel is obviously not the original. Built in 1907 on the old site, it retains the pulpit from which William Gadsby and A. B. Taylor preached.