with reference to the Divine volume, and it was found that fifty-two families possessed the word of God, while two hundred and sixteen families were either entirely destitute, or had a very small portion of the Sacred Volume. To supply this deficiency, the parish was divided into eleven districts, and visited every week by an equal number of collectors, belonging to the Baptist, the Wesleyan Methodist, and Independent denominations; and in twelve months the poor people subscribed nearly forty pounds to supply themselves with the Holy Scriptures, by which means about 200 copies were circulated in the parish

in one year. For upwards of 22 years, the Independent church and congregation at Ilkeston have enjoyed great peace, harmony, and prosperity.

KIRKIRETON, about six miles from Belper.--A small chapel, capable of seating about 120 persons, was erected at this place a few years since, under the patronage of the Home Missionary Society for Nottingham, Leicester, and Derbyshire. The congregation is in connection with Belper, and they are partly supplied by the labours of Mr. George Boden

Manningtree New Independent Meetinghouse.-On Friday, May 2d, the foundation stone of a new Independent Meeting-house, (45 by 39,) was laid at Manningtree, Essex, by the Rev. J. H. Cox, of Hadleigh. Messrs. Muscutt and Ainslie engaged in the devotional exercises. In the evening a very appropriate sermon was preached by Mr. Derrick, of Colchester, on the site of the intended Meeting-house, the place where the congregation usually assembled not being sufficiently large to accommodate the friends.

On Wednesday, July 30, the above Meeting-house was opened, when two excellent sermons were preached, one in the morning by the Rev. J. Blackburn, of London, from Psalm 1xxx. 1. "Thou that dwellest," &c.; the other in the evening, by the Rev. R. Burls, of Maldon, from 1 John, iv. 8. "God is love." The other parts of the services were conducted by Messrs. Muscutt, Pain, Hordle, Rogers, Low, Taylor, and Ainslie. The services were very numerously attended, and the collections amounted to £37.

Connected with this new interest, there is a meeting-house at Wix, (lately erected by Isaac Everett, Esq. of Wix Lodge, at his own expense), where there is preaching every Sabbath evening, and once in every alternate week. In the two congregations there are from seven to eight hundred hearers, and 250 Sunday-school children. Mr. Ainslie, late of Hoxton, is now supplying at Manningtree and Wix.

Ordination of the Rev. Richard Fletcher. --On Thursday, Sept. 18, R. Fletcher, late of Rotherham College, was ordained to the oversight of the Congregational Church, assembling in Ebenezer Chapel, Darwen, Lancashire. The Rev. W. Jones, of Bolton, commenced the services by reading the Scriptures and prayer; the Rev. G. Payne, A. M. Theological Tutor of Blackburn College, delivered the introductory discourse, on the Nature of a Christian Church,

(To be continued.)

from Acts ii. 26, and asked the questions; the Rev. W. Roby, of Manchester, offered the ordination prayer; the Rev. James Bennett, Theological Tutor of Rotherham College, gave the charge to the minister, from Matt. iv. 19; the Rev. P. S. Charrier, of Liverpool, addressed the church from Ezra x. 4; the Rev. W. Gill, of Walmsley, concluded with prayer, and the Rev. Robert Littler, of Lower Chapel, Darwen, read the hymns. The chapel was crowded to excess, and the services were highly interesting.

New Churches.-The third report of the Commissioners for the erection of new churches was presented to Parliament at the close of the last Sessions, and gives a minute detail of their proceedings. It appears, that between the close of the last report and the present, 10 churches have been completed, capable of accommodating 14,030 persons, two-thirds of whom will have free seats. There are 44 churches now in progress, chiefly in the gothic style, which will seat about 75,000 persons, half of which will be open to the poor. These are expected to cost half a million sterling. Twenty-five plans for other churches are now before the Commissioners, which, if approved, will provide for 36,127 individuals, at the cost of £248,240.; more than balf of these seats will afford gratuitous ac commodation. There are 12 places in which the Commissioners have resolved to erect either churches or chapels, but the plans for them have not yet been received, and many places yet unprovided for, which the means at the disposal of the Commissioners will not permit them to assist.

Irish Working School.--The Irish Chronicle for September contains, beside other interesting matter, an account of a Working School, in the county of Clare, under the auspices of the Baptist Society, for promoting the Gospel in Ireland. Upwards of three hundred young women are engaged in it, and specimens of the work have been sent to London.

IN 1755, Mr. Notcutt lost his affectionate wife, at the advanced age of seventy-seven. Her fune ral sermon was preached by Mr. Gordon. As the following circumstance connected with Mrs. N.'s death is one of an extraordinary nature, we shall quote it in the words of the Evangelical Magazine, by which the most respectable authority is vouched for its authenticity. "While they (Mr. and Mrs. Notcutt) resided at Thaxted, and before they had any idea of removing from thence, Mrs. Notcutt dreamed one night that they went to live at Ipswich, and the house in which she imagined they resided was so impressed upon her mind, that when she actually went there some years afterwards, she had a perfect recollection of it. She also dreamed, that as she was going to a closet in the parlour, her nose began to bleed, and that it would be found impossible to stop the blood until she had lost so much as to occasion her death, which event should happen forty years from that day. As her mind was very deeply impressed, she wrote down in her pocket-book the day of the month and year in which her dream occurred. In process of time they went to reside at Ipswich, and Mrs. N., on removing to her new habitation, was surprized to find it correspond exactly with the one she had seen in her dream; and CONG. MAG. No. 71.

also the very same closet, in going to which, she thought that the fatal incident happened. But parental duties, together with the busy concerns of life, engaging her attention, these circumstances were soon forgotten, and the closet was frequented for a number of years without any fear of the accomplishment of her dream. Christmas-day, 1755, as she was reaching a bottle of drops from the closet to give Mr. Notcutt, who was confined to his couch in the room, her nose began to bleed. Finding, after some time, that all means to stop the blood proved ineffectual, her dream came to her recollection, and she requested one of her attendants to fetch her pocket-book, directing them where to find it. Upon examining it, they found, to their unspeakable surprize, that it was exactly forty years from the time her dream had occurred. All methods were tried, but without effect; and as the médical attendant entered the room, she said to him, you may try to stop the bleeding if you please, but you'll not be able. And so it proved in the event. Every part of her dream was fulfilled: and she languished from Thursday till Satur day, when she sweetly fell asleep? in Jesus." For the last two years of his life, Mr. N. was so reduced by long and painful sickness, that' he rarely left his house, and never 4 C

officiated in the meeting-house, except occasionally in the administration of the Lord's Supper. He, however, never forgot the resignation he owed to his Father's will: he patiently submitted, and with a serene and placid mind, trusting in the mercies of God through Christ, and enjoying a delightful anticipation of those glories which God has reserved for those that love him, he continued to wait for his own dissolution, which took place in July 1756, in his 85th year. He was interred in the ground belonging to the meetinghouse. Mr. E. Cornell, of Colchester, preached his funeral sermon from Heb. xiii. 7, in which he delivers the following account of Mr. Notcutt's ministerial and private character. "He was a wise pastor and skilful guide: he was far from pretending to have dominion over your faith; yet he laboured to keep that authority among you, which became the dignity of his character and office, and which was suited to your edification. He was a wise masterbuilder in the house and temple of the living God, a scribe well instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom; and his written discourses, as well as his printed works, by which being dead, he yet speaketh,' will show that he was abundantly qualified for his work. He therein hath shown himself a workman that needed not to be ashamed. Christ was the great scope and end of his ministry, as he declares, and the doctrines of grace were preached by him; and with what diligence, fidelity, constancy, and care he discharged himself in his work, you are his witnesses, and God also he laboured in the word and doctrine, and was instant in season and out of season, readily embracing opportunities of preaching and doing good to souls; his heart appeared in his work, and what he spake evidently came

from his heart, and had a tendency, by the blessing of God, to do good to souls.

"And it must be said of him, that he lived as he preached. His doctrine was truly exemplified in his life; and he was himself a "living epistle of Jesus Christ, seen and read of all" that conversed with him: they might take knowledge of him, that he had been with Jesus; that he had sat at the feet of his divine Master, learned his doctrine, and copied his example; and that the same mind, in its measure, was in him, as was also in Christ. The graces of the Spirit were evident and conspicuous in him ; `his meekness, humility, patience, zeal, and love, were very evident. His faith in God was great, and this divine principle was apparent in him, in the whole of his walk and conversation. He lived as seeing him that is invisible, and his divine faith influenced him to abound in the fruits of righteousness, without any observable stain upon his character, as a Christian and a minister. He might truly appeal to you, as the Apostle does to the Thessalonians-Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.' 1 Thess. ii. 10, With what prudence, gravity, and sweetness of temper he walked before you, and presided over you in the Lord, you all know; he was meek and humble among you, and gentle towards all men. There was a venerable gravity, joined with an affable sweetness, which ran through his whole temper and conduct, and which made his company truly pleasant and delightful. He was a man of a pacific spirit, and would sacrifice every thing, but truth and holiness, for it. He was a lively example of self-denial and weanedness from the world, and a most remarkable pattern of patience under the af

flicting hand of God; and though God was pleased to train him up by a long series of uncommon afflictions, pains, and disorders, he was never heard to murmur, and would hardly allow nature to groan. With what prudence, faithfulness, diligence, and impartiality, he discharged the several duties of his office among you, God, Christ, and angels are witnesses; and I doubt not but he has received the testimony hereto, from many in the world of perfect spirits; and I trust there are many yet living among you, and now here present before God, who are the seals of his ministry, and will be his joy and crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord.

"I might trace him through the several relations he bore in life; he was a kind, tender, and loving husband; an affectionate and indulgent father; a kind master, a sincere and faithful friend; he was, in his whole deportment, a true picture of genuine Christianity; and without any suspicion of flattery, Ithink I may be allowed to say, he was one of the best men that ever I knew. He died in the faith of those doctrines he preached among you, and he tells you, in his Pastor's Legacy, That if he had an hundred years more to minister, he would preach the same things he had .preached among you.'

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The following facts are recorded, as illustrative of that hatred of sin which was so truly characteristic of this man of God. A female who lived in habits of sinful intimacy with a gentleman of Ipswich, and who frequently attended on Mr. Notcutt's ministry, on one occasion sent him half a guinea, as her subscription towards his support. Mr. Notcutt returned the money, with a remark to those with whom he was discoursing, "The price of a whore shall not defile the sanctuary of the Lord." On another occasion, observing

some young persons in his family amusing themselves with the disgusting conduct of a man in a state of intoxication, he gravely reproved them by saying, "Fools make a mock at sin." It is asserted that this rebuke was so well timed, that they never forgot it. Mr. Notcutt's literary character, as far as we can be permitted to judge from the few works of his we have seen, was very respectable. We know few books in which there is more of the unction of religion, than in his practical pieces. Belonging to that true Calvinistic school which exhibits its peculiar characteristics in rich displays of the suitability of Christ to the sinner's condition, and affecting and impressive invitations to receive him, we have long considered his sermons as specimens of that good old sound divinity of the elder nonconformists, which retained all the evangelical richness of the puritans, without their occasional grossness; and he borrowed much of the refinement and delicacy of the age in which he lived, without that depreciation of Gospel truth which but too generally accompanied those graces. Mr. Notcutt had six children, two sons and four daughters, all born while he lived at Thaxted. His eldest son, John, was for some years minister of Green Street Meeting, Cambridge. Towards the latter part of his life, having embraced Socinianism, he left the ministry, and retired to Ipswich. There he entered into business, and deceased in 1778. His son George was for nearly 50 years a respected deacon of the church to which hist father was the minister. He died in 1792, aged 78 years. Descendants of this honourable family are still associated with the dissenting cause, one of them a highly respectable minister of an Independent Church in one of the eastern counties.

Dr. Gordon retained his con