Murlin was born in Cornwall in 1722. At age 13, he was apprenticed to a carpenter, and as he put it, both he and his master, lived utterly without God, prone to swearing and taking the Lord's name in vain. When he entered into his own business as a carpenter, he added to that to cursing, he added gambling and drunkenness.
In 1749, he began to hear Methodist preaching (John Wesly, John Nelson, and John Downes led a powerful revival in Cornwall). Murlin says, "I was soon brought under deep conviction." [Let me add how important this is! Our preaching should lead people to the uncomfortable place of conviction, to the moment of decision, where they know they simply cannot keep on as they are, that they have no hope of saving themselves!] Murlin was definitely at the place of needing salvation. All he had was deep conviction of sin, such that he was afraid to go to sleep at night lest he wake up in Hell.
His deliverance came: "In April, I heard Mr. Downes preach on part of the 15th chapter of Luke. Under this sermon I found great deliverance. [Our preaching must diagnose the disease and provide the remedy!]
As he grew in grace, William Roberts, the Methodist traveling preacher in those parts put Murlin in charge of a class meeting in the area. He felt inadequate and began to pray and study the Scriptures more diligently, to be better prepared for the care of souls. He found that he was gifted to give a word of exhortation. And then he was called upon to preach, because even thought there were plenty of local preachers, there were too many places needing and wanting preaching! One day, a preaching meeting had been scheduled, but no preacher could go, so Murlin was pressed into service!
Murlin was well-received by the people, and the traveling preachers worked him and taught him. But Murlin had a problem, a problem that perhaps will sound familiar to many of us today: he had little expenses and great income from his carpentry. And he had a rich uncle who would leave him his estate. So Murlin began to build for himself a nice home. And then John Wesley sent him a letter asking if he would be willing to be a traveling preacher. Murlin wrote back to wesley that basically he was comfortable where he was, and he did not want to do it. All Murlin says is that Wesley wrote him back a letter that answered all those objections! [Man I'd love to see that letter.] Murlin says, "I took my horse and without delay rode away into the west of Cornwall."
Murlin preached in England and Ireland. Murlin, near the end of his career, said of himself, "When I look back on the many years I have now spent in testifying the Gospel of the grace of God, though I have not made the advancement in His ways I might have, yet can I say, to His glory, He hath so kept me that none can lay anything to my charge with regard to my moral conduct since God forst spoke peace to my soul in April 1749."
Perhaps Murlin's highest accolade came from John Wesley, who called him, simply, "honest John Murlin."
His colleague, traveling companion, and friend John Pawson said this in eulogy of Murlin: "His truly Christian temper, as well as his exemplary conduct bore witness that he walked with God. I am inclined to think that very few who have it in their power, as he had, to retire and live comfortably upon the property which God has given them, would continue to struggle with the heavy afflictions which he endured, traveling in all kinds of weather to preach the Gospel; but he had an affecting view of what his Lord and Saviour had suffered for him, and he was confident in his call to ministry.... He was a Methodist of the primitive stamp, in heart and life, and doctrine and discipline." [I think I should be entirely satisfied, if at the end of my life, those who know me would say, "he was a primitive Methodist!]
Murlin died in 1799 of complications from a stroke, in the peace of a firm believer in Christ.
The Methodist Minutes for 1799 gave him the noblest epitaph, repeating Pawson's estimate: "He was a Primitive Methodist."
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