Rev John Hickling – Obituary Minutes of Conference 1859 page 202

(5.) John Hickling; who was born at Hathern, in the county of Leicester, November 30th, 1765.

In the seventeenth year of his age he first attended the ministry of the Methodists, and shortly afterwards obtained a sense of his personal acceptance with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He began to preach in the year 1788, and was appointed the same year to the Chester Circuit by the venerable John Wesley.

From that time he devoted his energies to the work of God with unwearied zeal and diligence. So uniformly blameless was his life, and so intense his love for souls, that he was cordially received in all the Circuits where he laboured, and was,- in many of them, abundantly useful.

His sermons were distinguished by a clear, full, and bold enunciation of evangelical truth, by searching appeals to the conscience, and often by a rich unction from the Holy One. He dwelt especially on the doctrines of justification by faith only, the witness of the Holy Spirit to the fact of a penitent believer’s adoption into the family of God, regeneration, and all inward and outward holiness ; striving to ” warn every man, and teach every man in all wisdom, that he might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

As a Pastor, he watched over the flock with constant and affectionate solicitude, paying particular attention to the young; and, in all his intercourse with others, he was eminent for guileless simplicity of spirit, ingenuous candour, and kindliness, accompanied with exemplary circumspection and fidelity. He excelled in the gift of prayer; and not seldom, while he poured out his soul to God, in the course of his ordinary ministrations, or in the Conference, a deep and general influence pervaded the assembly.

He was earnestly attached to the discipline of Methodism, and sought to maintain it in all its parts. Since the death of Mr. Wesley he had witnessed the several agitations to which that discipline had been exposed ; but his love to it seemed to strengthen with his years, and he never expressed himself more warmly in its favour than in his latter days. When unable to take the work of a Circuit, he continued to labour to the full extent of his strength, and generally conducted about one hundred and fifty public services every year.

A few days before his death, mention being made by a friend of his seventy years’ ministerial service, he said, with that buoyant cheerfulness and full tone of voice which were remarkable in him to the last, ” I am not tired yet! I am not tired yet!” During his brief mortal affliction his mind was unclouded, and his soul kept in perfect peace. Shortly before his departure, he repeated, his countenance beaming with delight, —

“I am safe, and I am happy,

While in Thy dear arms I lie;

Sin and Satan cannot harm me,

While my Saviour is so nigh.”

His last words were, ” Lord Jesus, – Lord .” Soon after wards, this venerated and beloved servant of Christ, the last link that united the present race of Methodist Preachers with those who laboured under the immediate direction of Mr. Wesley, passed away to his rest.

He died at Audley, near Newcastle- under-Lyme, November 9th, 1858, in the ninety-third year of his age, and the seventy-first year of his ministry.