Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

Society volunteers his services to call out his Hottentots, &c." The well-known opinions of the Moravian body respecting war may well explain the reason of their remonstrance. The members of the London Missionary Society never professed such sentiments, but have always regarded defensive warfare to be justifiable. In January, 1835, news reached Cape Town, that the whole colony was threatened by the fierce invasion of the Caffres, a universal panic prevailed-Dr. Philip wrote to the missionary stations, declaring it to be the duty of every Christian "to come forward and defend the lives and properties of his fellow citizens"-and especially urged the Hottentots to do so, on account of their many obligations to the British government. This Dr. Doddridge in effect did, when he raised a company in Northampton to repel the Highland forces of the Pretender, who were advancing from the North. But it is one thing to unite to repel the invasion of an excited and barbarous people, and another, after they are repelled and overcome, to hunt them like beasts, to alienate their country, and to reduce them to the lowest servitude; or to flatter the man who could carry such unchristian and unenglish measures into effect. The readers of The Watchman, if they have dared to peruse the article that appeared in our November Magazine, must be shallow persons indeed, if they cannot distinguish between the duty of repelling a desolating invasion, and the barbarous conduct which followed the defeat of the poor and ignorant invaders! We are compelled, through the want of room, to postpone this subject to a future occasion: but enough we think has been said to illustrate the shallow methods by which the Watchman seeks to quiet his confiding readers.

A DRAWBACK ON CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA. A correspondent of The Central Free Press, makes the following statement: "There was an order published some time ago abolishing flogging in the Native Army, but on taking my ride this morning, (April 21,) I was not a little surprised to see the 12th regt. N.I. drawn up in square, and the cat-o'-nine tails, in the act of being applied to the back of an unfortunate soldier. On inquiry I learned that he was a country born Christian, employed as a musician in the band, but borne on the rolls and paid as a sepoy. How long is this disgraceful distinction to be kept up? And on what principle of justice are men to be exposed to the lash, merely because they are Christians? I believe many of the native Christians serving in the army, are determined to renounce their religion and become Musselmen; should this distinction be kept up much longer, and as long as they are subjected to this badge of Christianity, who can blame them, if they follow this course?"

How long will the Christian public in Great Britain submit to the employment of Indian law and authority to check the progress of divine truth, in that important empire! Why do not the new Bishops of India fearlessly raise their voices against such cruel distinctions? We ask not for bounties upon the profession of Christianity amongst the natives; but we must not submit to such drawbacks as this!

OBITUARY NOTICES.

Died at Pentonville, Nov. 21st, after a long illness, the Rev. SAMUEL Burder, D.D. in the 65th year of his age. This gentlemen was ordained at St. Albans, May 3, 1797, as the first pastor of an Independent Church, that had been recently formed in that town; and the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine of that day, in recording the event says, 66 may he live to nourish the infant church in the word of life, and may the church increase with the increase of God." In 1802 he published the first volume of his Oriental Customs, to which in 1807 be added a second, under the same title. In the list of subscribers, occur the names of many leading ministers of the Congregational body, and also several clergymen and a few dignitaries of the Church of England, amongst which that of Dr. S. Barrington, Bishop of Durham, is prominent. Shortly after this publication Mr. Burder resigned his connection with Dissenters, entered Clare Hall, Cam

bridge, and received Episcopal ordination at the hands of Bishop Barrington about the year 1809. In dedicating "The Scripture Expositor," to that prelate, Mr. Burder says, " is subordinate only to the high consideration, which ought ever to be cherished of the divine approbation, no motive will ever more powerfully influence my conduct, than a desire to fulfil those expectations which your Lordship has been pleased to form and express respecting me!" Whatever preferment Mr. Burder may have anticipated, he never obtained any ecclesiastical benefice; but was allowed by his patron to spend his days in the drudgery of curacies and lectureships, and sink into the infirmities of declining life in poverty and neglect; affording a melancholy example of the very dubious secular advantages to be gained by an act of conformity to the established church.

On Lord's day November 30th, at his residence North Hill, Colchester, the Rev. JOHN SAVILL, aged 56. This gentleman was a native of Bocking, in Essex, and second son of the late Joseph Savill, Esq., banker of that town. He was educated for the ministry amongst Protestant Dissenters, at Homerton College, and entered upon public life in the autumn of 1805, as morning preacher to the English Presbyterian congregation, then assembling at Salters' Hall Meeting House, London. In 1810 he was elected pastor of the Congregational Church, assembling at the Octagon Meeting, Colchester; and was ordained to that office Nov. 22d, in that year. He continued pastor of that important charge till 1828, when he resigned his office and removed to Halstead, in the same county, as successor to the venerable James Bass. Circumstances arose in that church which were painful to Mr. Savill's mind, and he therefore relinquished the care and responsibilities of a pastoral charge, and returned to his mansion at Colchester, where he died. As a preacher he possessed superior talents, and with the address and fortune of a gentleman, it was fondly hoped that his public life would have been eminently useful. Constitutionally prone to depression and melancholy, he was, however, but ill prepared to bear the personal and relative trials with which it pleased God to exercise him. A slight paralytic seizure indicated the existence of latent mischief, without however exciting apprehension of immediate danger. Three or four days before his last fatal seizure he wrote to a friend: " Although I would be thankful for the general good health I enjoy, yet I suffer much in my body from muscular weakness, and in mind from nervous debility. I must say with Job, the hand of God has touched me,' and with Job, I would say: What? Shall we receive good at the band of God, and shall we not receive evil?" On the Thursday evening previous to his death, we understand that he was seized with paralysis while alone in his summer house engaged in some astronomical observations, and that he lingered in hopeless circumstances to the following sabbath; when his sombre and saddened spirit took its flight to the blessed regions of light and joy, to the deep regrets of his bereaved family, and very extensive circle of friends, but doubtless to his own eternal gain.

On Thursday morning, December 15th, very suddenly, the Rev. SAMUEL SUMMERS, pastor of the ancient Baptist Church and Congregation at Broadmead, Bristol. This lamented gentleman spent the earlier part of his life in secular business, but having evinced unusual talents for the ministry, while fulfilling the duties of the deacon's office in the Baptist church, Devonshire Square, London, he was induced to relinquish trade, and devote himself to the work of the ministry. His peculiar acceptance as a preacher may be inferred from the fact, that he was chosen to succeed to the Rev. Robert Hall. His labours, we have understood, were made very useful, and his death will be deeply deplored by many. There is reason to fear that his laborious preparations for the pulpit increased a disease of the heart, which occasioned his death under circumstances so awfully, sudden.

On Saturday, December 17th, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, the Rev. JOHN RIPPON, D.D. for upwards of sixty-three years pastor of the Baptist Church, formerly assembling in Carter Lane, Tooley Street, but now worshipping in an elegant meeting-house, New Park Street, Southwark. Dr. Rippon was a native of Tiverton, Devon, and studied for the ministry at the Bristol Academy,

under Messrs. Hugh and Caleb Evans; and after his preparatory studies and the probationary service of twelve months, he was elected by his late charge to succeed the learned Dr. John Gill in the pastoral office, and was ordained accordingly, November 11th, 1773.

Dr. Rippon first became extensively known to the public by the compilation of " A Selection of Hymns from the best authors, intended to be an Appendir to Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns,” which has passed through very numerous editions, and by which he is supposed to have realized considerable property. This was succeeded by his Tune Book, adapted to the preceding.

In 1790 he began The Baptist Register, which was continued for several years. At the commencement of the present century, he projected a History of Bunhill Fields, in six octavo volumes, to be embellished with a hundred engravings. But although he received the money of many subscribers, and collected a large mass of MSS. and autographs, yet the work was never executed. He also published several single sermons, delivered on public occasions.

As a preacher, Dr. Rippon was for a long period exceedingly popular, characterized by great vivacity, fervour, quaintness, and point; his discourses were very acceptable to the multitude

For several years past the infirmities of advancing life have prevented the fulfilment of his pastoral duties, and the Rev. Charles Room was elected his co-pastor. The latter gentleman officiated at the funeral which took place at Bunhill Fields, on the 24th of December, and Dr. Collyer, of Peckam, preached the funeral sermon on the Lord's-day following at New Park Street, to a crowded auditory.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS, &c.

The Editor presents his grateful acknowledgments to the following ministers and gentlemen, from whom he has received various papers during the past month -to the Rev. Drs. Henderson-Urwick-and Matheson-to the Rev. Messrs. A. Wells-J. Thornton-Joseph Morison-W. Davis-J. Medway-E. Newton-Alfred Pope-Wm. Moorhouse-Thomas Milner-John Whitridge-T. C. Everett-Samuel M'All-G. B. Kidd-A. Tidman-C. N. Davies-and Professor Hoppus-and to Messrs. W. A. Hankey-J. Risden Bennett, M.D.Hull Terrell-and W. Robinson.

The Editor exceedingly regrets that several of these valued communications came to hand too late for insertion in the present number, particularly the valued letters of Drs. Matheson and Urwick, which were prepared with a view to the commencement of the New Series.

In reply to Mr. M'All, the Editor wishes to state, that he was surprised at the remarks in his letter, not being aware of any paragraph in the article referred to that could give offence to any parties. On reading the exceptionable passage, he confesses he was ignorant of the circumstances to which it alludes, and should not have been able to explain it without the key which Mr. M'All supplies. The Editor cannot hesitate for a moment to express his regret that the gentleman who wrote the article should have made it the medium of a covert attack upon any of his brethren; but as the offensive remarks are so concealed that only the parties involved will understand them, he thinks it better that no further notice should be taken of them. At all events, he does not wish the discussion of such a question in the pages of the New Series of the Congregational Magazine. The Editor will be happy to hear from his northern brethren on some more agreeable topics.

In preparing the present Number, the Editor has been anxious to supply his readers with an average specimen of the work, and he trusts, by the able cooperation of his many gifted correspondents, to increase the interest, the influence, and usefulness of the only Magazine that is avowedly devoted to the welfare of the English Congregational Churches. Is it too much in return to request the best efforts of our readers to extend the circulation of this Periodical?

THE CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE.

FEBRUARY, 1837.

MORAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL

STATISTICS OF LONDO N.

No. 1.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS

THERE have been periods in the by-gone history of our ancient city, when its inhabitants were congratulated, both from the pulpit and the press, upon those unequalled religious privileges, which irradiated London with heavenly light, and made it the very Goshen of the empire!

Preachers, on anniversary solemnities, are sometimes tempted to be rhetorical, and it would be curious to collect, from sermons delivered before the Governors of Christ's Hospital, the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, or at the meeting of the charity children, the many eulogies that have been pronounced upon the exalted means of this metropolis. On Easter Monday, 1618, Dr. Joseph Hall, then Dean of Worcester, but afterwards successively Bishop of Exeter and Norwich, was called to preach the Spital sermon before a solemn assembly of the municipal authorities. On that occasion he displayed his wonted piety and eloquent quaintness. Impressed with the sentiment to which we have referred, he notices the spiritual wealth of London in the following glowing terms: Wherein I cannot but thankfully congratulate the happiness of this famous city: which, if in other riches it equalize the best, I am sure in this it excels them all. There is not a city under the cope of heaven so wealthy in spiritual provision; yea, there are whole countries in Christendom, that have not so many learned preachers as are within these walls and liberties. Hear this, ye citizens and be not proud, but thankful! Others may exceed you in the glory of outward structure, in largeness of extent, in the uniform proportion of streets, or ornaments of temples; but your pulpits do surpass theirs: and if preaching can lift up cities unto heaven, ye are not upon earth. Happy is it for you, if ye be well VOL. I. N. S.-VOL. XX.

L

fed and taught, and woe be unto you, if you do not think yourselves happy.'

[ocr errors]

Lest any should think this mere oratory, we may consult a clerical writer who, nearly a century after, recorded similar sentiments, not in a pulpit oration, but in a sober introduction to a small volume, entitled "Pietas Londinensis, or the present Ecclesiastical_State of London, 1714." Its author, the Rev. James Paterson, M. A. exultingly states, "I have given a Historico-Theological account of 201 places which have been set apart for the service of God. But as if all these had been too few, the last session of Parliament, out of their godly respect to religion, thought it necessary to order fifty new churches to be erected+ about it, which is twice as many

* Bishop Hall's Works, Vol. V. p. 102.

That "fifty new churches" were erected in London in the reign of Queen Anne, may be classed with the vulgar errors of the common people. That subject has, indeed, been left in considerable obscurity, but there are some facts connected with it that deserve to be recorded. The project originated in the House of Commons, on a petition from the Parish of Greenwich, praying for assistance to rebuild their old church, Feb. 14, 1710. The lower House of Convocation, for the Church of England then had a Convocation, resolved to give their thanks to the House of Commons, and "to promote the good work now in view, by imparting such lights as they are able to afford, in relation to the extreme want of churches in and about these populous cities.” They accordingly prepared a scheme of the churches, chapels, and meetinghouses, in twenty-seven of those parishes where additional churches were judged to be most wanted, and that document was presented to the Speaker of the House of Commons by their Prolocutor, the celebrated and eloquent Francis Atterbury, who, though the advocate of Sacheverel, the antagonist of Hoadly, the friend of the Stuarts, and the champion of high-churchism, was not so blinded by the spirit of party as to overlook the Dissenters in his calculations. There is a careful enumeration of Presbyterian, Anabaptist, Independent, and Quaker Meetings, and of French Churches, in that interesting document. What a contrast to the contemptuous silence that is maintained respecting dissenting chapels in certain quarters now, though it is probable there are four times as many as there were then, and occupied too by four times as many people.

The funds to carry these erections into effect were raised by a tax of two shillings per chaldron upon sea-coal brought into the Thames during a given period; but the Commissioners appointed to manage them, incurred, as a subsequent Act declared, " charges so excessive," that the time of collecting this impost was protracted again and again, and as Dr. Blomfield states, "The churches which were actually built, did not indeed amount to half the number intended." How many less than half the number were the result of that miserable job, the Bishop of London has not stated. We have not been able to enumerate more than twelve, though of course the means of perfect accuracy are not within our reach. As it is a question of some historical interest just now, we give the names of those, with the costs of some of them, which, considering the value of property at that period, may well be called excessive.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Proposals for the creation of a Fund to be applied to the building and endowment of additional Churches in the Metropolis: by Charles James, Lord Bishop of London.

« ElőzőTovább »