more than thou appearest unto others; and let the world be deceived in thee, as they are in the lights of heaven..

Measure not thyself by thy morning shadow, but by the extent of thy grave; and reckon thyself above the earth by the line thou must be contented with under it. Spread not into boundless expansions either of designs or desires. Think not that mankind liveth but for a few; and that the rest are born but to serve those ambitions, which make but flies of men, and wildernesses of whole

nations.

Opinion rides upon the neck of reason; and men are happy, wise, or learned, according as that Empress shall set them down in the register of reputation. However, weigh not thyself in the scales of thy own opinion, but let the judgment of the judicious be the standard of thy merit.

Meikle Sandie Gordon and Wee Sandie Gordon.In the days of the Stuarts, the chief of the name of Gordon, a good soldier and a steady Catholic, resided chiefly abroad, leaving his Scottish lands to the care of two stewards of his own clan, distinguished among the peasantry by the names of Meikle Sandie Gordon and Wee Sandie Gordon. It happened that one Ramsay rented a small farm on the Gordon's estate; and though the land was stony, and rank with broom and thistles, it was his own birth-place, and that of his ancestors, so he wished the lease renewed. The two stewards had other views; they refused to renew the lease, and the old farmer was about to emigrate, when his Grace of Gordon came unexpectedly from abroad; he asked for, and obtained, an audience. He told his story, tradition says, in a way so characteristic and graphic, that the noble landlord was highly pleased: he renewed the lease with his own hand, and invited him to dinner. The good wine added to the farmer's joy; he told pleasant stories; said many dry and humorous things; and his Grace was so much entertained, that he took Ramsay-a stiff Presbyterian-through his house. From the picture-gallery they went into the chapel, ornamented with silver images of the saints and apostles. The old man looked on them with wonder, and said," Who may these gentlemen be, and what may your Grace do with them?" "These," said his Grace," are the saints to whom we address our prayers, when we wish God to be merciful and kind; they are our patron saints and heavenly intercessors.'

I'll tell ye what," said the old man, with the light of a wicked laugh in his eye, "fiend have me, if I would trust them when I wanted my lease renewed, I went to Meikle Sandie Gordon CONG. MAG. No. 64.

and Wee Sandie Gordon, and all I got was cannie words, till I made bold, and spake to your Grace. Sae drop Saint Andrew, my lord, and address his betters." His Grace soon after became a Protestant; and tradition attributes his conversion to the story of Meikle Sandie Gordon and Wee Sandie Gordon ;-a story that for a century and more has been popular in Scotland.

Curious Epitaph.--The following epitaph was written by Dr. Franklin for himself, when he was only twenty-three years of age, as appears by the original found among his papers, and from which this is a faithful copy:

The Body

of

Inefficacy of Formal Prayer.-In one of the assemblies in America, during her war with Great Britain, wherein there was a majority of Presbyterians, a law was proposed to forbid the praying for the King by the Episcopalians, who, however, could not conveniently omit that prayer, it being prescribed in their Liturgy. Dr. Franklin, one of the members, seeing that such a law would occasion more disturbance than it was worth, said, that he thought it quite unnecessary, for, added he, those people have, to my certain knowledge, been praying constantly these twenty years past, that God would give to the King and his counsel wisdom, and we all know that not the least notice has ever been taken of that prayer; so that it is plain they have no interest in the court of heaven.' The house smiled, and the motion was dropt."--Franklin's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 299.

Fall of a Meteoric Stone at Juvenas, in France. On the 15th of July, 1821, about 4 P. M. a meteoric stone, weighing 2201b. fell at Juvenas, N. W. of Viviers, in the department of the Ardeche. It sunk five feet into the ground. Its surface was covered with a sort of glare. Before it fell it appeared like an enormous mass of fire. Its fall was accompanied with a continued rolling noise, and four distinct detonations. The sky was clear, and the sun shining bright.-Journal de Physique, tom. xcii, p. 463.

2 F

DERBYSHIRE.

(Continued from page 164.)

CHARLESWORTH in the parish of Glossop. There is an ancient congregation of Protestant Dissenters in this hamlet, respecting which the only accounts we have been able to obtain, are, that JOSEPH HOLLAND was minister in 1715; that for a short time previous to 1771, RICHARD PLUMBE was minister; and that in that year he removed to Nottingham, where be continued several years. He was succeeded at Charlesworth, by Mr. JOHN WhiteHEAD, from Heckmondwike Academy, who remained with this congregation till his decease. He was followed by a Mr. MARSH, who died in 1821; and was succeeded by the present minister, Mr. ADAMSON, from Patricroft, in Lancashire. In 1798, the old place of wor ship having been found to be incon venient and ruinous, was taken down, and a new and commodious chapel erected in its stead, which was opened on the 18th of July, by the Rev. Mr. Sutcliffe, of Chapel en-le-Frith, and Mr. Blackburn, of Delph. The former chose for his text, Luke x. 5. " Peace be to this house." The latter, Psalm xlviii. 9. "We have thought of thy loving kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple;" and in the afternoon, Mr. Smith, of Manchester, preached to the people from the 1st of John iv. 11. "Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another." The attendance at the opening was very considerable, and the stated congregation consists of at least eight hundred persons.

CHELMERTON. The dissenting con. gregation at this place, is one of those which were gathered originally by the Rev. WILLIAM BAGSHAW, and by his secession from labour, about 1693, devolved to the care of the Rev. JOHN ASHE, who generally preached here one Lord's day in every month, for several years. About the middle of the last century, the Rev. GEORGE BUXTON, alrcady mentioned under Buxton, resided at this place, and occupied the pulpit; which, since his decease, has had no stated occupant; but Mr. Mellor, a layman, has preached in it occasionally, once in the Lord's day, for some years.

CHESTERFIELD. In this, as in many other places, Dissent originated in that notable display of the wisdom of a secular power ruling in a spiritual kingdom, which was apparent in the 17th century, in the expulsion and exclusion of 2000 pious and diligent ministers of the Gospel, from the endowed pulpits of the till then national church. One of the ejected ministers of this parish, was Mr. JOHN BILLINGSLEY, M. A. a native of Chatham, in Kent. Calamy (vol. 2, p. 169, 170) states that he was born in 1625; that he first went to St. John's College, Cambridge, and afterwards to Corpus Christi, in Oxford; that he was ordained Sept. 26, 1649, in the church of St. Andrew Undershaft, London; that while at Oxford he preached frequently in the adjacent places, and at length had a call to one of the remote and dark corners of the land, Addingham in Cumberland, to preach the Gospel, which he did faithfully at that place; that finding the people ignorant, he set about catechizing, and was one of an association for reviving the scriptural discipline of particular churches. From Addingham he removed to Chesterfield, "where," says Calamy, writing in 1713, "his memory is, and will be, precious to many, though the peevishness of some, and the malignity and apostacy of others, added greatly to the burthen of his ministerial labours among them. He was a constant preacher, and did not serve God with that which cost him nought. His style was plain, his expressions clear, his method natural and easy, his voice sweet and audible, though not very strong. Out of the abundance of his heart his. mouth spake, both in prayer and preaching, and God was pleased very much to bless his labours" among this people, to whom he was so attached, that he would not quit them. He was decidedly friendly to the Restoration of 1660, which he promoted by praying publicly for King Charles the Second, when it was dangerous to do so, and for which the king rewarded him by an ejectment, not for ignorance or scandal, sedition or rebellion, schism or. heresy; but for not saying and swearing some such things as were never before imposed on the ministers of the Gospel, in any reformed church under heaven. Bishop Hacket was earnest with him to con

form, using both flatteries and threats, but in vain. Mr. Billingsley knew not how to mollify oaths by forced interpretations, or to stretch his conscience to comply with human will, in cases where he knew that if he were in the wrong, human power could not defend him. Yet he did not censure others, but quietly receded from his public station, when he thought he could no longer hold it without sin. After his removal, he continued to labour among his people privately, as he had opportunity, till the Oxford Act compelled him to remove to Mansfield, which became a little Zoar to him and others in his situation.

His

ministry, in later years, was attended with great fatigue, which was at length insupportable to so weak a frame as he had. Once a fortnight he came from Mansfield to Chesterfield, and preached twice, also expounding and catechizing on the Lord's Day, and visiting the sick; travelling in those times late in the night to come in unseen, and preaching also in the night to avoid discovery. Many other excellent traits in his cha-, racter are mentioned by Calamy, who has preserved a copy of his epitaph. He died May 30, 1683-4. Calamy also mentions a Mr. FORD as having been ejected from this parish, and gives the following curious particulars of him. "He was of a melancholy temper, and much inclined to silence; but his silence was not unfruitful; for his few words were usually of worth and weight. He needed much intreaty to be brought to his preaching-work; but when he was engaged, he made amends to those who had bestowed pains to persuade him. He was congregational in his judgment, but ever behaved himself with all meek ness, and the highest respect, to Mr. Billingsley, who was of a different judgment. He died of consumption, (before he had reached the age of 30,) occasioned by his close study and great painfulness in his work. He saw the Bartholomew storm arising, and therefore gave his people some warm and affecting sermons on Isaiah v. 6. I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. These sermons were taken in short hand, and are fairly transcribed and kept in the hands of those that highly value them; several passages in them appearing almost prophetical. He committed all his sermons to memory; never using notes."

In 1681, two years before the decease of Mr. Billingsley, a Mr. THOMAS OGLE was ministering in this place, and in 1693, as appears from a deed executed in that year, he was united with Mr. ROBERT FERNE, as a joint minister over a Presbyterian congregation in Chesterfield. In the following year a commo

It

dious meeting-house was erected for the use of this Society, at the expense of Cornelius Clarke, Esq. of Norton. does not appear when the services of Mr. Ogle terminated; but Mr. Ferne removed to Worksworth about the year 1703, in which year the Rev. JOSEPH FOOLOWE, who, with Mr. Ashe and others, had been ordained in 1696, appears to have settled here, and remained till the termination of his life by consumption, December 8, 1709, in the 30th year of his age. His successor was the Rev. THOMAS ELSTON, who had been for many years pastor of a congregational church, at Topliff, near Wakefield. He came to Chesterfield, July 8, 1709, and died April 1, 1710. He married one of the daughters of John Pickering of Yorkshire, gentleman, and Deborah, his wife, sister and co-heiress of Ralph Lord Ewer. The next minister was the Rev. JOHN THOMAS, who died Dec. 4, 1719, in the 49th year of his age; but in the year 1715, Mr. Thomas Ibbotson, a pupil of the Rev. Timothy Jollie, ap pears to have been the pastor of an Independent Society, which, it is conjectured, originated in a separation on the death of Mr. Elston.

To Mr. Thomas succeeded Mr. CHR18TOPHER SMALLEY, who had been ordained in 1708, and removed from Atherstone, in Warwickshire, in 1722. He continued in charge of this congre gation 21 years, and died the 8th of of February 1743. To him succeeded the Rev. JAMES HEYWOOD, from Lancashire, who occupied the pulpit nearly 30 years, and resigned his office in 1772. He was succeeded in 1773 by the Rev. THOMAS ASTLEY, of Preston. This good man exercised his ministry at Chesterfield during 40 years. His preaching was useful. He was highly respected, and much attached to his work, which he would not relinquish till compelled by the infirmities of old age to do so, in the summer of 1813. The next minister was the Rev. GEORGE KENRICK, who removed to Kingston-upon-Hull in the beginning of the year 1715. During the residue of that year the congregation was supplied by ministers from a distance, until, at their unanimous request, their present minister, the Rev. ROBERT WALLACE, from the York College, undertook the important office among them.

Chesterfield Independent Congregation.→→ About the year 1776, some persons in Chesterfield invited the Rev. JOHN CALVERT, of Bolsover, to preach in a barn, which they had procured for the purpose. He accepted their invitation in 1778; a meeting-house was erected, and he was shortly afterwards ordained their pastor. He continued his ministry

here with acceptance, till the latter end of 1795, when he removed to Kipping, in Yorkshire, and was succeeded by the Rev. WILLIAM BURGESS, of Sheffield, who continues in the charge of this congregation, although he has been for a considerable time prevented by his infirmities from preaching regularly, in consequence of which the pulpit has been filled, during the three or four past years, by students from Rotherham Academy. It has recently been found necessary to erect a large place of worship, of which the first stone was laid on the 6th of September 1822. Its dimensions are 60 feet by 40, and it is capable of seating about 350 persons. Two school-rooms and a vestry are connected with the building. The whole is vested n trustees, exclusively for the use of Protestant Dissenters, who hold the docrines contained in the Lesser Catechism of the Assembly of Divines, which met at Westminster in the year 1648.

Chesterfield Baptist Congregation originated in the labours of Mr. MORTON, formerly of Sheffield, who was engaged by the Baptist brethren of that place to preach at Chesterfield in a place of worship which had been occupied by a society of New Connexion Methodists. On the 3d of August, 1817, the church was formed. An address, on the nature and order of a gospel church, was delivered by Mr. John Jones, of Sheffield; afterwards the brethren signified their willingness to unite for the worship of God, and keeping his ordinances, by holding up the right hand of fellowship. In the evening, two persons were baptized by Mr. Morton, in a river adjoining the town, and were added to the church; Mr. Jones preached on the subject of believers' baptism, from Matt. xxviii. 19. to a very large and attentive congregation. The charge of this church and congregation has been transferred from Mr. Morton to the Rev. DAVID JONES, formerly of Brentford. Under his ministration they have increased, and the meeting-house, after being considerably enlarged, was re-opened for public worship Nov. 7, 1821.

CHINLEY. The congregation of Dissenters at this place, was first gathered by that eminently good and zealous man the Rev. WILLIAM BAGSHAW, of whom we have given some account on page 52. Mr. Bagshaw having his residence at Ford, first erected or fitted up, chiefly at his own expense, a plain building for public worship, at the neighbouring hamlet of Malcoffe. In this place he preached for several years, till about the time of his decease in 1702. The congregation was highly respectable, most of the neighbouring gentry being connected with it; and as the hamlet of

Chinley, which adjoins Malcoffe, was considered to be a more central situation for them, it was resolved to erect a chapel there, but the project was not immediately executed. Mr. Bagshaw died on the 1st of April, 1702, of which event there is the following record in the church-book of Malcoffe, now Chinley, in the hand-writing of his successor : "He called to have a hymn sung; and after a short prayer, to which he added his Amen, he fell into a slumber, and seemed to breathe without difficulty, till on a sudden he gave a gasp or two, and so quietly slept in Jesus.”

To Mr. Bagshaw succeeded the Rev. JAMES CLEGG, who was born at Shawfield, in the parish of Rochdale, Oct. 20, 1679, and educated first under the Rev. Richard Frankland, at Rathmell, in Yorkshire, and afterwards under the Rev. Mr. Chorlton, of Manchester. In July, 1702, Mr. Clegg received a unanimous call from the congregation at Malcoffe, and took charge of his office as their pastor, on the 6th of August following, residing at Ford, in the house of Mr. Samuel Bagshaw, his predecessor's son, whose children he assisted to educate. He preached at Malcoffe till 1711, in which year a plot of ground was purchased at Chinley, and a new place of worship erected by subscription, aided by the personal labour and team-work of many of the farmers, and others in the neighbourhood. This place was furnished with the pulpit and benches of the old place at Malcoffe, and was put in trust, for. the use of the congregation, as a place of worship for Protestant Dissenters, together with a commodious burial ground which adjoins it, and which has lately been enlarged. But so bitter was the spirit of persecution which at that time prevailed in the breasts of the high church party, that it was found necessary to guard the chapel by night against the violence of those who threatened to pull it down. In this place of worship Mr. Clegg exercised his ministry till his decease, at an advanced age, on the 5th of August, 1755, at which time he had sustained his ministerial office over this congregation for the space of 53 years. He was a man of distinguished abilities, and in doctrinal sentiments closely allied to the venerable Richard Baxter. This appears from a discourse on the Covenant of Grace, which he published in reply to Mr. De la Rose, who had industriously propagated in his neighbourhood what he conceived to be unscriptural and Antinomian views upon that subject. He appears, from many sermons which he left behind him in MS., to have been a judicious, faithful, and practical minister of the Gospel. Such was his popularity during many years, that the chapel

was crowded, even in the aisles and on the pulpit stairs. The church book contains a list of the communicants in the year 1728, when they amounted to 126. Mr. Clegg also took his degree in medicine, and practised extensively as a Doctor of Physic, in which capacity, he was held in high repute in the neighbourhood. A few years before his decease a Mr. Daniel Taylor, from Leicestershire, and a Mr. Ingham, from Yorkshire, commenced field preaching in the neighbourhood of Chinley, which was about the same time visited by Messrs. Wesley and Whitefield. The former gradually introduced among some of Mr. Clegg's hearers weekly class meetings, and established a circuit preaching, which institutions have continued in this neighbourhood from that time to the present. These innovations were opposed by Dr. Clegg, both in his sermons and private admonitions, so strenuously, that several of his respectable hearers took offence at his conduct, and espoused the cause of the Methodists. By this event his mind was much wounded, and his popularity somewhat impaired in the latter years of his life.

Dr. Clegg was succeeded by the Rev. WILLIAM HARRISON, who had preached at Stand, in Pilkington, in the county of Lancaster, near seven years, and afterwards at Buxton near 20 years. He took charge of this congregation about a month after Dr. Clegg's decease, and continued with them till the year 1782, when he declined the public exercise of the Christian ministry, on account of his age and infirmities, about twelve months before his death, which happened on the 27th of March, 1783. During Mr. Harrison's ministry, the congregation very much decreased; owing in some measure to the zeal of the Methodists, and no less to the of fence which his most judicious and pious hearers took at his doctrinal sentiments, which are stated to have been, at least, "strongly tinctured with Arianism."

Mr. Harrison was succeeded by the Rev. WILLIAM SUTCLIFFE, who came from Barnsley, in Yorkshire, and commenced his ministry in this place in June, 1782, and continued it till his decease in 1804. During the last year of his life, his public ministrations were much interrupted by the progress of a bilious consumption, which eventually terminated his existence; the best medical assistance and advice having failed to remove it. Mr. Sutcliffe was educated at Heckmondwike Academy, in Yorkshire, under the care of the late Rev. Mr. Scott. His religious sentiments were evangelical. He was amiable in his disposition, and of a serious

temper, which obtained for him the good opinion of all his acquaintance, and the congregation increased under him for some time after his entrance on the ministry; but it afterwards gradually declined, and towards the close of his life was reduced very low. A friend who visited him in his last illness, and who has furnished us with some materials for this article, observes, "during the whole of his protracted illness, he enjoyed a very comfortable frame of mind, arising from a lively faith in the great principles of the Gospel, and gave the fullest evidence that his end was peace."

In January, 1806, soon after Mr. Sutcliffe's decease, Mr. EBENEZER Glossop, then a student at Rotherham, under the tuition of the late Rev. Dr. E. Williams, was first invited to supply the vacant congregation for some weeks, and afterwards received from them, and the trustees, an unanimous call to the pastoral office amongst them, which he accepted, and was ordained on the 6th of May, 1807, the services being conducted by the Rev. Messrs. M. Phillips, and William Evans, and the Rev. Dr. Williams. It was observed, as a singular, although undesigned coincidence, that this ordination should be entirely conducted by natives of the neighbouring principality of Wales. Previous to Mr. Glossop's ordination, the trustees and congregation expended £300. on repairing and beautifying their meeting-house, the whole of which sum they raised among themselves, although but few of them were in affluent circumstances. Mr. Glossop still continues in charge of this church and congregation, the members of which are closely united in the bonds of Christian amity, but their numbers are not considerable, having been greatly reduced by the decease of aged communicants, and the removal to a distance of some of the most respectable families.

CRICH.-Mr.THOMAS SHELMERdine, who was born in Lancashire, and bred in Christ's College, in Cambridge, was a diligent preacher in this parish for several years, where, says Calamy, (vol. ii. 166,) he was encompassed with many good old puritans that lived in the parish and about it, who strengthened his hands much in his work. He was a man very cheerful in converse, and a kind husband to a holy, but very melancholy wife. From Crich he removed to Matlock, where he did the work of his place till he was silenced. After that event he removed to Wirksworth, and died there. In his last sickness, he would tell his friends that he was going to his preferment; and one day remarked to a friend, that next to his hopes of