Rev. T. Jackson, of Stockwell, prayed at the grave. the Continent, from 2 Thess. iii. 1. “Brethren pray for us," &c. Rev. B. Rayson, of Tonbridge Chapel, concluded with prayer. The charge is now in the press, and will speedily be published. RECENT DEATHS. Died January 30th, in the 55th year of his age, the Rev. JOHN HYATT, one of the ministers of the Tabernacle, and of Tottenham Court Chapel. This zealous and deservedly popular minister was, we believe, a native of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire. The carly part of his life was devoted to business. In the villages surrounding his native town, he commenced his labours as an itinerant preacher, and after having been engaged in this work of love and self-denial for two or three years, he received an invitation to settle as the pastor of a small church at Mere, in Wiltshire. Here he continued to labour for nearly two years, from whence he removed in the year 1800, to Frome, in Somerset. After residing in this town for some time, he became an annual visiter to the Tabernacle in London, during three successive years, where his ministry was so much approved, that he was selected by the managers of that connection, at the urgent request (we believe) of his venerable surving fellow-labourer, the Rev. M. Wilks, to become their resident minister; he listened to their call, and commenced Iris ministrations as their pastor in the year 1806. By the manner in which he has fulfilled the arduous duties of this important station for nearly twenty years, he has proved himself to be a faithful, conscientious, and devoted servant of Jesus Christ. During the last three years of his ministry, he has suffered greatly from an asthmatic complaint, which, at length, terminated his useful life. He was buried at Bunbill Fields, Feb. 8, attended by the managers of the chapels, and by several hundreds of mourners from both congregations. The multitude who witnessed this interment, are supposed to have exceeded 10,000, many of whom were in tears, and all of whom were serious and apparently devout. His pall was borne by six ministers, with whom he had lived in habits of friendship. The Rev. G. Collison, of Walthamstow, delivered the oration, and the We hope to be able soon to furnish a memoir of this truly good and great man. Died, on Tuesday, Feb. 7th, at his house in Bermondsey, the Rev. JOHN TOWNSEND, for many years pastor of the Independent Church, Jamaica Row, in the 69th year of his age. This beloved and venerated man has, through a long and honourable life, been the instrument of most extensive usefulness. To him our metropolis owes the establishment of one of its most valuable philanthropic institutions, "the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb ;" and to him our own denomination is indebted for a benevolent establishment, "the Congregational School," for the education of the sons of poor ministers of our own body. Let those who love the memory of Rev. John Townsend, uphold that institution, as his appropriate monument. By his death, a vacancy has occurred in the important trust of W. Coward, Esq., which, we hope, will be filled by some individual, as much in harmony with the mind of the donor as was the deceased. His disease, we believe, was hydrothorax, and his departure was eminently peaceful and blessed. His funeral took place at Bunhill Fields, on Thursday, Feb. 16th, when the Rev. Dr. Waugh delivered the funeral oration, in the presence of a crowded and most respectable auditory. His remains were followed by more than forty coaches, including sixteen private carriages, and persons of every denomination united to express their respect for his memory. The feelings his removal have occasioned are expressed in the resolutions of two bodies of Congregationalists, which are inserted in the preceding pages. We are happy to learn that Mr. T. has left behind him a MS. journal of his life, which cannot fail to be interesting to the religious public, when his intimate connection with all the great movements of Christian philanthropy, for nearly half a century, is remembered. Died, February 10th, in the 81st year of his age, JOSEPH STONARD, Esq. of Stamford Hill, for many years the Treasurer of Homerton College, and a beloved Deacon of the Church at Aldermanbury Postern, by whom his departure is justly deplored. Answers to Correspondents, &c. COMMUNICATIONS have been received this month from the Rev. T. Binney-J. Arundel -P. Cater-E. Bickersteth-S. Brown--Dr. J. P. Smith--J. Fletcher-J. Hague J. Vautin-J. Barling--J. Stratten-A. Wells-Professor Shadd. Also from Messrs. B. Barton--Jonas--J. Bunter-- (e.) --B. J.--No Sceptic--E. A. W. --M. S.-T. Melrose--W. F. Lloyd-J. B. Williams-J. Fisher-J. P. Brown, LL. D. As extracts from either of the old works mentioned by J. M. can scarcely fail to be interesting to our readers, we shall feel obliged to him for them at his own option.The verses of F, on the Past, now inserted, were acknowledged last month; E being a typographical error for --The article on New Orleans will appear in the next.--The letter from a Lover of Liberty came to hand too late for the present number; it will appear in April, unless its present interest should previously subside. DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS OF DAVENTRY ACADEMY, On his entrance upon the duties of Theological Tutor, Nov. 4, 1775. THE Dissenting Academy established by Dr. Doddridge at Northampton, was, upon his lamented decease in 1752, removed to Daventry, as Dr. Caleh Ashworth, who was chosen to succeed him, refused to relinquish his pastoral charge in that town. Upon the death of Dr. Ashworth, in 1775, the Rev. Thomas Robins, of West Bromwich, who had received the academical instructions, and enjoyed the personal friendship of the Doctor, was requested to preach his funeral sermon, to which Mr. Orton thus refers in a letter to a young minister. "The death of Dr. Ashworth, though it has been long expected, has been a very painful event to me. Mr. Robins preached his funeral sermon last Lord's day to a great auditory, from those words, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Coward's trustees, all the neighbouring ministers, and many in this and other neighbourhoods, think that no person is more proper to fill up this vacancy than Mr. Robins, especially as he is exceedingly acceptable to the congregation at Daventry. He hath been strongly urged to take up the prophet's mantle, but he has an unconquerable diffidence of his own abilities. I wish the many applications he hath received from ministers of all sentiments and denominations may overcome it. If he absolutely refuse, I know not who will be thought of. I pray God to direct in this very important concern."* The modest reluctance of Mr. R. yielded, however, to the importunity of his friends, and for six years he discharged the duties of his office with advancing reputation, when it pleased God, whose ways are inscrutable, to afflict him with such debility of voice, that he could not preach, or even read lectures to his students, and which, therefore, compelled him, in 1781, to resign the offices he had so honourably filled, and retire into the seclusion of private life. As the character of Mr. Robins is but little known, the following sketches will not be unacceptable to the reader. The first is from the pen of the Rev. T. Belsham, who studied at Daventry, and succeeded Mr. Robins in the office of tutor there. Long after he had abandoned orthodox opinions, and resigned the academic charge, he referred, on a public occasion, to Mr. Robins in the following terms, which, considering their avowed difference of theological opinions, is alike honourable to both parties. "In the year 1781, I was appointed, by Mr. Coward's trustees, tutor of the academy at Daventry, in succession to the Rev. Thomas Robins, who was, in consequence of the loss of his voice, under a necessity of resigning that honourable and important situation, which for several years after the death of Dr. Ashworth, he had filled with great reputation, acceptance, and success. The uncommon talents and virtues of this most excellent person, who I trust will pardon me for introducing his name on this occasion, can only be exceeded by that extraordinary degree of humility and self-dithdence, which, unfortunately for the world, has confined within comparatively a very limited sphere, the beneficial influence of those various acquisitions, of that singular facility of communicating instruction, and of that eminent example of rational piety, which, in a more public and conspicuous situation, might have been productive of the most signal benefit to mankind." † The second is the more recent panegyric of the Rev. R. Hall, which contains a fact which will increase and perpetuate the interest the public must feel in the man who first excited the taste of that great master of elegant composition. "Of Mr. Robins, (his tutor,) Mr. Toller was often heard to say, that he considered him as the wisest and the best man he ever knew. Among many other mental endowments, he was remarkable for delicacy of taste and elegance of diction, and perhaps my readers will excuse my observing, that the first perception of these qualities, which * Orton's Letters, vol. i. p. 159. + Mr. Belsham's Discourse at Hackney on his Resignation, May 5, 1805. NEW SERIES, No. 16. the writer of these lines remembers to have possessed, arose from hearing him preach at Northampton on a public occasion. It is to be lamented, that he left none of those productions behind him, which a correct and beautiful imagination, embodied in language of the most classic purity, rendered so impressive and delightful. The qualities of his heart corresponded to those of his genius, though long before his death his bodily infirmities obliged him to relinquish a commanding station, and to retire into obscurity. He retained to the last such an ascendency over the minds of his former pupils, and such an interest in their affections, as nothing but worth of the highest order can command." * It is not to be expected that the following address, transcribed from the short-hand notes of one who heard it, will display that " classic purity of style," which Mr. Hall describes Mr. Robins to have possessed, yet it is an historical document of considerable interest, and fully confirms all he has said respecting "the qualities of his heart," and as such we are happy to present it to our readers. WHEN we consider our fellow solicitude of those to whom the tuition of many such is committed? When I consider you, Gentlemen, as those who are to have the oversight of Christian congregations; and, therefore, as those by whose instructions and example the present character and everlasting state of thousands will proba bly be affected, when I think of the relation to you into which I am brought, and that I must be answerable in some measure to conscience, to the world and to Christ for your behaviour; God only knows the desire I feel for your establishment, your growth, your eminence in speculative, in experimental, and in practical Christianity. If the apostle could say, with respect to preaching the Gospel, "who is sufficient for these things?" much more may those who are far inferior to him, both in gifts and in graces, tremble under a sense of their insufficiency, when called out to the still more difficult and important office of training up numbers for that great work. God knows that a sense of my own insufficiency for this office oppresses and almost overwhelms me. O! that we could all adopt the words with equal warmth of every suitable affection. But, if the steadfastness of common Christians is so desirable, what must all, who Literally speaking, I am with have the spiritual and eternal wel- you in weakness and in fear. I fare of mankind at heart, feel for bless God, indeed, that I see the steadfastness of those who are nothing in your dispositions or rising into stations of importance carriage to discourage; but much in the world, and especially for to delight and animate me. And those who are training up for the I have some hope, that by the help highest office in Christ's church? of your regularity and diligence, And most of all, what must be the and piety and prayer, I shall * Rev. Robert Hall's Memoirs of the Rev. Thomas Toller, prefixed to his Sermons. |