(Thomas Walsh) 1730 - 1759

This servant of God had his infirmities, properly so called, which often made him weep in secret places. And yet so powerfully did the grace of our Lord work in him, to the destruction of sin, and to such a degree of victory did he attain over himself, the world and satan, that to many he seemed more than human, being in truth, a man of another world, in whom dwelt richly the Spirit of the living God.





HIS BEGINNINGS
Thomas Walsh, born at Limerick in 1730, was a schoolteacher at the age of 18. He was an Irish Papist and became one of the grandest of Wesley's lay-preachers. He had been trained in the strictest obedience to Rome, but was led to join the Church of England through the instrumentality of an elder brother, who was trained as a priest, but forsook Popery through reading the Bible. Walsh heard the Methodist preachers, and joined the Society in September, 1749, when he was about 19 years old.

HIS CONVERSION
He says, "I began to discern clearly, that it is the blood of Christ alone which cleanseth from all sin, and that by one offering of himself once for all, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified (Hebrews 10:14) perfectly accomplished, without any helps, all that was necessary in order to the justification, sanctification and glorification of all believers. When asked, why I left the church of Rome, I answer: Because I am well assured that the doctrine of merit (to speak of no more) and works of supererogation, are contrary both to reason and Scripture." Read Luke 17:10, and 1 John 1:7.

"The Lord convinced me of my bosom sin, and all my other abominations, which were as so many devils ready to tear me in pieces. My own righteousness appeared as filthy rags. A corrupt tree, I saw, cannot bring forth good fruit. I was an unbeliever, and had not true faith, and therefore had no part nor lot in Christ. I learned that whosoever has true faith, has with it the remission of sins; (Romans 4:5; 5:1; 8:1; John 3:18; Acts 13:39; 1 John 5:10.) I had no rest day nor night.

"The Son of the Promise kindled in me earnest desires toward God. My heart began to warm and dissolve after it was scorched by the threatenings of His wrath. Light began to spring up in my mind. I saw not only my sins, but likewise the all-sufficiency of Christ. I was convinced that He came to seek and to save lost sinners; that He tasted death for every man, willing all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. I was constrained to cry out, Lord, what manner of love is this, wherewith thou hast loved us! But I had not yet redemption in His blood. I could see the promise of pardon held forth to me, but was not yet able to lay hold of it.

My soul was sick with fervent longings. About four months after my most deep awakenings, the clear day began to shine, and the Lord in rich mercy visited me with His salvation. He brought me out of the horrible pit, and set my feet upon a rock. It was in a meeting. The prayer of the preacher, the hymn, the text (Isaiah 63:1) all came with such power to my heart, that I was constrained to cry out Bless the Lord, O my soul! for He hath forgiven all thine iniquity. I was now divinely assured that God, for Christ's sake, had forgiven all my sins. The Spirit of God bore witness with my spirit that I was a child of God. I broke out into tears of love and joy, and sang praises to God and the Lamb, who washed me from my sins in His own blood."

HIS CALLING
In the same year he joined the Methodist Society in the town of Newmarket and in 1750. When he opened his mind to Wesley about his call to preach, he was requested to send an account of his conversion and experience.

He received the following answer "My DEAR BROTHER,-It is hard to judge what God has called you to till trial is made. Therefore, when you have an opportunity, you may go to Shronil, and spend two or three days with the people there. Speak to them in Irish."

Walsh's gifts were soon recognised. His roughness of address and his dialect offended some, but the power of God was manifest in his preaching. He had his full share of the perils of his new vocation. 78 men took an oath to oppose him. Armed with clubs, they met him a mile from the town of Roscrea, where he intended to preach, and offered to bring either a priest or a clergyman to argue with him. Walsh told them that he did not concern himself with opinions, but preached against sin of every kind.

The opponents were much mollified by his appeals to their conscience, but when he refused to promise that he would not visit the place again, they determined to put him into a well, which they had prepared for that purpose. Walsh escaped this fate, but was taken by the back and thrust out of the town when he attempted to preach in the street. At Bandon, where he was cast into prison by the magistrate, who was also the Rector of the place, he preached through the window to all who could hear his voice. The people, in their sympathy for the young preacher, brought bedding and provision for him and the companions who accompanied him to prison, and the magistrate soon found it prudent to set him at liberty.

Walsh became the Apostle of Ireland. His perfect command of Erse everywhere won him a hearing, and he bad a large share in the spread of Methodism in his own country. His knowledge of the Scriptures was profound. The study of Hebrew was a passion with him. Wesley says that he was the finest Hebrew scholar he ever met.

He often attended the synagogues and conversed with the Jews, for which work his studies gave him a special fitness. Wesley calls him. "that blessed man." He did not remember any preacher who in so few years had been used for the conversion of so many souls.

In 1753 he was appointed to the English itinerancy. His wide appeal prompted John Wesley to declare that with six men like Walsh he could turn the country upside down.

HIS CHARACTER
The deep and genuine acquaintance with God to which he attained was in truth, beyond that which the generality of Christians arrive at. An habitual spirit of mortification served as wings to his prayers.

Regarding Mr Thomas Walsh, Thomas Jackson says, "I do not remember to have known him spend a minute in discourses about national occurrences, politics, worldly diversions or anything of the sort. He knew that these were not his affairs, and that his business was one."

A friend once met him in the street and has declared, "He seemed to me like a person retuned from another world".

Christ and the scriptures, with the things pertaining to them, were the only and uniform objects of his attention; and every thing place or person, which did not serve to promote, in some degree, his knowledge and love of these, had with him the estimate of trivial and insignificant. The presence of God became so exceedingly familiar to him as it was he could not be content a moment without it.

Several times has he been quite lost to himself and insensible of everything about him being left in the visions of God. It has been said that "He could be happy only in conversation with Him" [God]

He thought prayer to be his business more than anything in the world. Jesus as his great model and rule in everything; imitating Him especially in the purity of His body. He ate little, wept much, loved more, received all by faith, and rarely opened his mouth but about heavely things.

"Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, and ask them what report they bore to heaven."

"I desire to be with the Lord continually, that my communion may be stronger with Jesus than ever. Hasten Lord, the glad hour, when I shall see thee as thou art."

HIS DIARY ENTRIES

Weds 27th Feb 1751
"I was not alive to God today. Unnecessary talk brought deadness upon my soul."

March - July 1751
"Great part of this day I lived as in heaven. Heaven was within me, God poured down a blessing into my soul. The influences of His Spirit wrought so powerfully upon me, that my joy was beyond expression."

"Entering into my closet, the moment I bowed my knee the Lord poured down a blessing into my soul. O' what a heaven upon earth did I experience for some moments."

"How I am lost in the ocean of the immensity of thy mercy"

Mon 19th July 1751
"All the day my soul thirsted for the living God. It was transported and exceedingly rejoiced in reading some divine meditations. O' my God what shall I say? Angels cannot praise thee worthily, what then shall I, who am a worm of the earth do?"

"O' let me die that I may see thee!"

"My whole desire is to be devoted to thee"

"God was much with me in private. O' what a heaven upon earth is it to commune with Him in prayer, holy reading and divine meditation."

Sun 2nd June 1757
"All this forenoon I was raised above myself, and lost in God. Heaven as it were, came down into my soul and I saw the glory of the world to come. I beheld all the glory of this world as the mire in the streets, but, O' the views which I had of heaven and the foretaste of those ravishing joys that flow there, so transported my soul, that I could bless God that ever I was born."

"I grieve, though not enough, that my love for God is so little and that I do not desire more earnestly to be with Christ."

HIS DEPARTURE
Mr Walsh had his prayers and desires to be with God granted and was taken into glory at the age of 28 years having been a Christian for 9 of those years. He ran a race of piety and ministerial labour which shames 99 out of 100 of Christ's ministers. Walsh died of consumption in 1759, in the twenty-eighth year of his age. His incessant study, his abstemiousness, and his prodigious labours, all contributed to this painful loss. Walsh suffered from poor health, which was made worse by failure to take enough rest and ill treatment by mobs

For me personally, I am amazed at this man's heavenly mindedness. As I was reading this man's biography and about the times he was asking God to take him home, I assumed that he was late in life. I was then completely stunned to read that he was only in his 28 year when he departed this life. Such was the man's love for God's presence that this world afforded him little and his desire was always on a heavenly Kingdom. How great did this man's light burn so bright in such a short span of time. O' that we too might burn with a Holy desire and zeal for God that in the time frame left for us, our time would be best used to the glory of God.

As believers gathered about him in his final moments, he exclaimed: " He is come! He is come! My Beloved is mine, and I am His!"

Mr John Wesley has said of him, "I knew a young man who was so thoroughly acquainted with the Bible, that if he was questioned concerning any Hebrew word in the Old or any Greek word in the New Testament, he would tell after a little pause, not only how often the one or the other occurred in the Bible, but also what it meant in every place. His name was Thomas Walsh. Such a master of Bible knowledge I never saw before and never expect to see again."


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'Christians in Touch' does not claim to have written any of the material above and much of this information has been found at various sources. If any unreferenced copyrights have been breached, we will gladly remove this page from the website immediately.

References:
(*) Encyclopedia of World Methodism (1974) and Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, edited by Donald Lewis (1995)
(*) Wesley Center for Applied Theology [http://wesley.nnu.edu/WesleyanTheology/telford/telford_ch13-14.htm#CHAPTER%20XIV]
(*) The Lives of Early Methodist Preachers - edited by Thomas Jackson Vol II (pages 1 -220) Tentmaker Publications, 121 Hartshill Road, Stoke-on-trent, ST4 7LU. ISBN 1 899003-28 2