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DEAR SIR,

CHAPEL OPENED-LITERARY

NOTICES.

127

To the Editor of the New Evan. Magazine. accomplished. This Christian society was formed by the venerable Puritan divine, Dr. Thomas Godwin, whose place of worship was in Lime-street, in the city of London, afterwards in Artillery-street, and, during the last sixteen years, with their present pastor in Church-street, Mile End New Town. The Chapel contains six hundred free seats.

You will do a service to the reli-
gious public, if you will, in the next num-
ber of your Magazine, caution them against
a female impostor, who has been in the north
of England and Scotland, endeavouring to
excite commiseration, by assuming great
distress on account of her son having en-
listed, &c. She is an elderly woman, ap-
parently of about fifty, and of rather decent
appearance. The falsehoods in which she
has been detected, are most numerous and
palpable, and she is wholly unworthy of
confidence or encouragement.
She has
made a free, but most unwarrantable use
of the names of Dr. Steadman, of Brad-
ford; J. A. Haldane, Esq. of Edinburgh;
and Messrs. Pengilly and Sample, of New-
castle-upon-Tyne.

Your most obedient servant,
GEO. SAMPLE.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, March 11, 1824.

CHAPEL OPENED.

On the 26th of October last, the first stone of a spacious building, erected near the Vintners' Alms Houses, Mile End Road, to be called Brunswick Chapel, for the use of the Rev. G. Evans's congregation, was laid by Dr. Collyer, assisted by several other ministers and lay gentlemen. Under the same roof are included rooms for the education of six hundred poor children, belonging to the Sunday Schools, which are also to be occupied on week days by a school on the British system. The building is 92 feet by 46, and 27 from the floor to the ceiling. On the same site are erecting six comfortable alms houses, for the poor aged female members of the church, and a house for the residence of the minister. The ground is held for the term of three hundred and fifty years, at 10s. per annum, and was given to the church by the late Michael Panten, Esq. one of the congregation, who also furnished the necessary funds for erecting the school rooms, alms houses, &c. and invested, in trust, the sum of one thousand pounds three per cents. for the use and benefit of the charity schools belonging to the congregation, in which fifty children are clothed and educated; also, one thousand pounds three per cents. for the use and benefit of the Infants' Friend Society, for relieving poor married women in their lying-in; and three hundred pounds new four per cents. for the use and benefit of the Auxiliary Society in aid of Missions. The Chapel will cost about two thousand pounds, which sum must be raised by subscription, as our generous benefactor to the institutions specified made no provision for this object. The congregation have subscribed in a liberal manner, and with the assistance of those friends who wish to see the old churches revived, as well as new ones formed, it is hoped, that this important object will, at no very distant period, be

LITERARY NOTICES.
In the Press.

Sketches of Sermons; furnished by their respective Authors. Vol. VII.

A second Edition of Toller's Sermons; with a Memoir of the Author, by ROBERT, HALL.

The whole Works of Bishop Reynolds; first collected in 6 vols. 8vo. with a Life, by ALEXANDER CHALMERS, Esq. F.R.S. &c.

The Second Edition, enlarged, of Mr. COTLE'S Strictures on the Plymouth Antinomians.

Just Published,

Sabbaths at Home; or a help to their right Improvement, founded on the 42nd and 43rd Psalms. By HENRY MARSH, of Bungay; 2nd Edition; 8vo.

the Ministry of the Word, by the Rev.
Eighteen Short Essays on Prayer, and
S. GREEN, of Bluntisham; 8vo.

James Hinton, A.M. Oxford.
A Biographical Portraiture of the Rev.
HOWARD HINTON, M.A. of Reading. 8vo.
By JOHN
Cox's (Rev. F. A.) Answer to the Rev.
Greville Ewing, of Glasgow, on Baptism.

8vo.

VIII. and last; with Index, and List of
FULLER'S (late Rev. A.) Works. Vol.
Subscribers; Title-pages to all the Vols.
History of Joseph, in Verse. In Six
Dialogues. 12mo.

Richard Baynes's General Catalogue of
Books, in all Languages, for 1824.

MR. ISAIAH BIRT HAS LATELY PUB

LISHED, A NEW AND IMPROVED EDITION
OF HIS PAMPHLET, ENTITLED
"Adult
Baptism, and the Salvation of all who die in
Infancy maintained; in Strictures on a Ser-
mon, entitled, "The Right of Infants to
Baptism, by the Rev. H. F.

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BURDER.'
MR. JONES's BIBLICAL CYCLOPÆDIA,
Part IV. is published this day.

II. containing the whole of Palestine.
THE MODERN TRAVELLER, Parts I. and
Price 2s. 6d. each, illustrated with Maps
and Plates.

The Eighteenth"Annual Meeting of the London Hibernian Society, will be held at the Freemason's Tavern, Lincoln's Inn Fields, on Saturday, May 5th; his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, Patron, in the Chair. The Chair will be taken at twelve o'clock precisely.

128

SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE OF SEVERAL BAPTIST MINISTERS. Written by DR. SAMUEL STENNETT, about Forty Years ago.

WITH Voice untun'd, and countenance severe-
See honest BOOTH amidst the crowd appear;
Averse to all the arts that please and soothe,
Plainly he states, and well defends the truth;
Sincere devotion, mix'd with manly sense,
More than supplies the place of eloquence.
CLARK next appears, with easy air and mien,
His countenance good-natur'd and serene;
Rough in his voice, and all his periods long,
Yet warm his manner, and his reading strong:
To usual forms of preaching unconfin'd,
His subject minds, but leaves his text behind.
Next in review, see humble REYNOLDS come,
Stranger to all the arts that priests assume;
With nose contracted, and fix'd eyes he stands,
Clenching his Bible fast with both his hands,
Steady he stands, nor turns from side to side,
Alike unmoved by passion, or by pride;
His text explains, divides, observes, infers,
And all without the aid of metaphors.

RIPPON in neat attire, and well comb'd hair,
Graceful ascends the sacred desk, and there
With voice melifluent, and pleasing tone,
Thro' flow'ry mazes leads his audience on;
Tropes in abundance, trickle from his tongue,
And shed their mystic fragrance on the throng;
From (but's) and (and's) with chymic art extracts,
More gold than others get from sterling texts:
But yet in all aims to be understood,

And many a story tells to make us good.

Erect and self-possess'd, lo! MARTIN stands,
And with important nod audience demands;

So he proceeds with slow, but solemn pace.

THIS Word and THAT mark'd with emphatic grace;
His maxims grave, his doctrines orthodox,
Tho' now and then derang'd by paradox;

Yet piety, good sense, and upright aim,

Secure due honor, MARTIN, to thy namie.

Next modest BUTTON meets the critic's eye,
Too modest to be hurt by flattery;

So humble and so grave he never spoke

A high-flown word, much less an empty joke;
Plain are his sermons: quite as plain is he,
Full to the brim of sound divinity.

In each discourse he gives the world his creed

And is not merely sound, but sound indeed.

;

Now ROWLES with even pace comes rambling on,

Skimming the ground that should be trod upon;

But what if he the main idea miss,

So well he talks, he cannot fail to please.

His master ROBINSON he has by heart,

While few suspect he acts another part;

Yet truth demands that ROWLES should have his due,
To do his hearers good, is his grand view.

One character remains to be describ'd

The critic's partial here, you'll say he's brib'd.
Well then, if that's the case, we'll e'en decline

The fond attempt to make a STENNETT shine;
Yet 'tis our wish his faults may not appear,
We'll therefore place our fav'rite in the rear.
But here we'll pause; nor venture to describe,
The various mixtures of the younger tribe;
To point the many virtues they possess,
Might make them vain-so make them less.
Yet since one favour we will ask of you,
"Tis the main thing the critic has in view;
Consider well the portraits we have drawn,
And make the pleasing features all your own;
Copy what's right, and what's amiss correct,
Aim to be good, and you'll command respect.

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NEW

EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE,

AND

Theological Review.

MAY, 1824.

LETTER TO A YOUNG MINISTER.
July 14, 1822.

YOUR prospects of usefulness and happiness, you are convinced, are much less encouraging than they were. You seem indeed to be startled by the circumstances in which you find yourself placed, but not to be fully able to account for them; though, I am concerned to perceive, you think some of your auditors have proved fickle, and that they were governed merely by caprice in quitting your ministry; however, as you seem unwilling to rely solely on your own judgment on this point, and feel desirous of knowing the sentiments of one on whose friendship you rely, I will endeavour, my dear friend, with the fidelity your confidence demands, to assist you in the investigation of the causes of that change, which you so feelingly lament. Allow me to suggest the importance of your examining how far any thing in your public ministrations has contributed to this painful

event.

When you settled at you found a numerous, a well instructed, and a thinking congregation. You entered on a large harvest, and soon reaped the produce of the good seed sown by your excellent predecessor, in whose steps you then determined to tread. You devoted yourself to reading and study. You endeavoured to preach the Gospel faithfully to every creature, and to teach those, of whom there were many, who avowed their subjection to the Saviour, to observe all things whatsoever he had commanded. You did not, by dogmatizing, disgust the irreligious and harden the impenitent, but by sound argument

VOL. X.

and affectionate entreaty, the Lord being with you, you convinced and conciliated, and eventually won over to the interests of truth and righteousness, some of the most hopeless characters among your hearers; men of considerable powers of mind, who had never disputed the truth of Christianity, but whose tempers and lives gave convincing evidence that they never imbibed its spirit. Losing sight of the important consideration that these, and some other happy changes, were not accomplished by your own power, you sacrificed, I fear, to your own net, and burnt incense to your own drag You would, I am sure, have been shocked if you had supposed you were appropriating to yourself the glory that belonged to God; but yet I fear you at least began to indulge the thought that you were a necessary instrument, and that having been thus honoured by God, you were entitled to claim a greater degree of importance among your brethren. The people, from strong attachment and great tenderness to your feelings, made concessions which have, perhaps, eventually proved detrimental both to your happiness and their own.

Having troubled you with these remarks, I will endeavour to answer your anxious enquiry-Whether I can propose any means by which you may recover the ground you have lost. I hope I can, or at least I will suggest, for consideration, such as occur to me.

your

Let your sermons contain materials for thinking, and you will have thinking hearers. There are still remaining in your congregation many well instructed and thinking Christians, whose devo

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