CHAPTER IV.
REV. DANIEL JAMES DRAPER.
Daniel James Draper, a name that will henceforth be as honourably and widely known in England as it was previously in Australia, was born at Wickham, near Fareham in Hampshire, on August 28th, 1810. He was of respectable parentage, his father being the chief carpenter and builder in the village. Although unacquainted with the saving knowledge of the gospel, his parents were strictly moral in their lives, and regular attendants upon the services of the parish church; consequently the influences which surrounded the child’s opening years were favourable to the formation and growth of virtuous habits.
He was brought, however, to religious decision by coming in contact with some devoted Wesleyans in the neighbouring village of Fareham. They had a chapel in the village, and in it the gospel was fervently and faithfully preached; and we doubt not the building—for it still exists—will henceforth be memorable on account of its being the place in which Daniel James Draper first saw the necessity of repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
By the door of this chapel young Daniel was occasionally found listening, and taking in stray words of warning and of wisdom, as John Bunyan did before him from the lips of the pious women of Elstow, who talked of holy things as they spun and knitted in the sunlight before their cottage doors. Daniel would not enter, but again and again the lad was seen listening at the chapel-doors, and marvelling perhaps, like the tinker of Bedford, at what he heard. On one occasion he received a sharp rebuke for neither coming in nor going away, but only standing without, and the reproof so wounded him that he resolved never to go near the place again.
But to this resolution he did not keep; and ere long, in this chapel, the truth of God was applied to his youthful heart, and he felt very deeply the need of salvation. Outwardly in his life, hitherto, there had been nothing worthy of blame; his conduct had been strictly upright and moral; but now his conscience revealed to him depths of depravity and guilt, of whose very existence he had been unconscious, and he saw the urgent necessity of receiving pardon, and of becoming a partaker of the new birth. By repentance and faith he immediately sought reconciliation with God, and it was not long before he became a rejoicing believer in the Divine love and favour.
Very naturally, he now openly connected himself with those from whom he had received so much spiritual benefit, and he became an enrolled member of the Wesleyan Society. He had not reached twenty years of age, when, although still beneath the roof of his kind, church-going father, he took this decisive step. His resolution to connect himself with the Methodists was not favourably received by his father, or by the members of his family generally, but young Daniel held on his way; yet, as he did this with all the good nature that was so marked a characteristic of his maturer years, there is reason to believe that his youthful profession did not expose him to any opposition that pressed heavily upon the buoyancy of his spirits. He even in these early days became well known for the zeal and interest he displayed in the salvation of the lost and perishing.
D. J. Draper
Ere long the Methodists determined to erect a chapel in the village of Wickham, where he lived, and it is interesting to remember now, that it was built by Daniel and his father, and that, in the course of a short time, the son had the opportunity, in that very chapel, of proclaiming to his father the unsearchable riches of Christ’s gospel. He was about twenty years of age when he enjoyed this privilege, his gifts and character having placed him amongst the Wesleyan local preachers. Although it was still distasteful to some members of his family, he eventually decided upon devoting himself to the work of the ministry, and never was a decision, we believe, more in harmony with the Divine will and more signally honoured by blessed results.