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Lancashire. Rev. W. Roby, Manches

ter.

Suffolk. Rev. H. Cox, Hadleigh.

CHAPELS OPENED.

A place of worship for the Independents was opened on Angell Hill, Bury St. Edmunds, 18th September, 1825. The Rev. Mr. Morell, Theological Tutor at Wymondley College, preached in the morning and evening; and the Rev. Mr. Blakie, in the afternoon. The attendance was such throughout the day, as to warrant the most pleasing hope of usefulness. In the afternoon, by the request of the Rev. Mr. Dewhirst, the Rev. Mr. Morell preached at the meeting-house, in Whiting Street. It is earnestly desired, that the proceedings of this day may issue in the revival and promotion of vital godliness in this ancient and populous town.

On Tuesday, October 4, a small chapel, neat and frugal, was opened for divine worship, at Normandy, five miles northwest of Guildford. Very appropriate sermons were preached by Messrs. Churchill, Upton, and Ashley. Messrs. S. Percy, James Upton, jun, and Haymes, read portions of Scripture adapted to the occasion, and prayed. And on the 25th of October, a new chapel, on the same plan, and of the same dimensions as the above, was opened at Pitland Street, situate about seven miles from Dorking, and ten from Guildford. Messrs. Knight, of Kingston, and Upton, preached suitable and interesting sermons. Messrs. Upton and S. Percy conducted the devotional exercises. The attendance on each occasion, at both places, was exceedingly gratifying. The ground for the erection of the former chapel was kindly given by a friend to the village, and a lover of the Gospel ;and that for the latter, by the Lord of the Manor, a member of the Church of England, who was induced to make the grant, from a conviction of the beneficial effects of village preaching in his own neighbourhood. Both places are supplied by Missionaries employed by the SURREY MISSION SOCIETY, but were built by the liberality of the religious public, principally in the County, no part of the Society's funds being expended for building purposes.

On Tuesday, Dec. 6, 1825, a neat Independent Meeting-house, sufficiently commodious, without galleries, for about 350 persons, was opened at Wellington, Salop; on which occasion, two sermons were preached by the Rev. Dr Raffles, of Liverpool. And, as many persons of the town and neighbourhood were prevented, by considerations arising out of local circumstances, from attending on a week day; the Rev. T. Weaver, of Shrewsbury, continued the opening services, by preaching two sermons in the said building on

the following Lord's-day. On these occasions, the other parts of the worship were conducted by the Rev. Dr. Raffles, the Rev. Messrs. T. Weaver, D. Lewis, R. Richards, W. Keay, (Baptist Minister of Wellington,) and T. L. Lamb, late a student at Hoxton Academy, who has been labouring at Wellington for several months past, till the crowded and increasing attendance at the room in which divine worship was conducted, and which was, from the first, intended only as a temporary accommodation, rendered the erection of a more suitable building absolutely necessary. The amount of the collections after the service exceeded £67.; and the prospest of usefulness is highly encouraging. A considerable portion of the expense, incurred by the erection, remains to be liquidated; in the accomplishment of which, the aid of Christian benevolence is earnestly entreated.

ORDINATION.

The Rev. Wm. Copley (late of Watford, Herts,) having recently accepted the pastoral charge of the congregational church of Oxford, the union between pastor and people was publicly recognized on Thursday, Nov. 24, 1825. The Rev. T. Morgan, of Birmingham, delivered the intro. ductory discourse, and received from the church and its newly elected pastor, statements of the circumstances and steps which led to the important transaction. The Rev. Dr. Steadman, President of the Academy at Bradford, (Mr. Copley's pastor and tutor,) addressed to him a solemn and affectionate charge, from Luke xii. 42; and in the evening, the Rev. S. Coles, of Bourton, preached to the people, from Phil. ii. 29. The devotional services of the day were conducted by the Rev. Messrs. Tys, of Wallingford, Helmore, of Stratford, Steadman, of Bradford, Price, of Coate, and Hinton, of St. Clement's, Oxford.

RECENT DEATHS.

On Wednesday, the 28th of December, cied at Dr. Williams's Library, Red Cross Street, in the 75th year of his age, RICHARD HOLT, Esq. of King's Road, Gray's Inn Road. He had been attending a quarterly meeting of the Trustees of that Institution, and had just seated himself at the dinner table, when he fell back in his chair, and instantly expired.

Died at Glasgow, January 1st, Mr. JOHN BELL, teacher of languages, aged 32, much and justly regretted. He was a man who, for the extent of his knowledge in ancient, modern, and especially eastern literature, was an ornament to the City and University of Glasgow. He was acquainted with the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Saxon, Teutonic, Gothland, Icelandic, Portuguese, Arabic, Persia, Chaldaic, Sanscrit, Hindostanee, Bengalee, and several other languages;

and he possessed such a critical knowledge of many of them, as not only to relish their beauties, but even to enter into the merits of the critics who have professed to write grammars and lexicons of those languages, and to publish editions of works written on them. He visited London not many months since to solicit the support of the booksellers in the publication of a new and corrected edition of Dr. Taylor's Hebrew Concordance, but the work was too expensive to justify the attempt, and his premature death will now render its abandonment a matter of satisfaction. He was the redoubted antagonist of the celebrated Dr. Lee, Professor of Arabic in the University of Oxford, and so powerful were his criticisms, that the learned Professor found it necessary to reply to them once and again in the Asiatic Journal.

Died January 15th, at his house, Upper Street, Islington, in the 75th year of his. age, JOHN WILSON, Esq. for many years a manager and trustee of the late Rev. George Whitfield's Chapels, Tabernacle and Tottenham Court, to which office he succeeded on the decease of Mr. West, the executor of Mr. Whitfield. Though his health had been infirm for some time, yet no immediate expectation of dissolution was entertained by his family, and his departure was so easy, that its occurrence was for some time unknown by those in immediate attendance. His mind was happily prepared for the engagements of another world, but a very large and sorrowing family will long deplore his loss. He was interred at Bunhill-fields, on Monday the 23d, when the Rev. Rowland Hill delivered a funeral address with great animation and feeling, and the Rev. Matthew Wilks concluded in prayer. The funeral was attended by a large circle of mourners, amongst whom we observed the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor.

Died, at Camberwell, on the 23d ult. in his sixty-third year, APSLEY PELLATT, Esq. of St. Paul's Church yard, one of the deacons of the church at Camberwell, under the pastoral care of the Rev. William Orme. Mr. Pellatt had for many years been afflicted with a spasmodic affection, which often occasioned great suffering, though it rarely laid him altogether aside. He was taken suddenly ill on his way from town to his own house on the 21st, but revived again as he had frequently done. On the day of his death he appeared greatly better, and all serious apprehensions of danger were abated. He ate his dinner comfortably, and expressed his gratitude for the degree of restoration he experienced. About six o'clock, he complained of faintness, laid his head back upon the chair, breathed gently for two or three minutes and expired. Mr. Pellatt was well known in a large circle of Christian friends, by whom he was universally beloved. While able to take part in public business, he was the active friend of the London Missionary Society, and of many other benevolent institutions. He was kind, generous, and gentle in no ordinary degree. He was a Christian from conviction, a Dissenter on pcinciple, and a lover of all good men. He scarcely knew how to refuse an application for his assistance, and was almost incapable of using an offensive expression. His loss will be severely felt in the church, in which he long and honourably discharged the duties of an important office by his family, consisting of eleven sons and daughters, (may they inherit his faith and imitate his holy example!) and by many who enjoyed his friendship, or shared his bounty. Such men deserve to be held in honourable remembrance among the churches

of Christ.

Answers to Correspondents, &c.

COMMUNICATIONS have been received this month from the Rev. C. N. DaviesW. Orme--G. Redford--Dr. J. P. Smith--J. Ivimey-house--W. Gregg--T. Hine--J. Blackburn

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Evanson--W. MoorNewstead--T.L. LambDa

vies (of Kingsbridge)-J. Jackson--T. Mountford, and C. Holdgate. Also from Messrs. Youngman--W. Derry--T. Fisher--J. Batt--J. Edmeston --B. Barton--J. Houlton-E. G. Ballard-J. Jones --J. B. Williams--J. Stephen--A London Congregational Minister-A Christian Observer-A Friend of Missions-An Independent-Philo-Hornbookius -- Vindicator--- -Messiems --Marcus--Jacobus--Obed-J. J. Y.--J. M.--A--E.

HANWELL CHAPEL.-Our last number contained a notice, that this place of worship was not put in Trust. This assertion has been contradicted in a note to us. We have no object nor interest in view, but to guard the Dissenting public from imposition, and their property from alienation. In reply to the declaration, that Hanwell Chapel is in Trnst, our original imformant begs the public, who feel interest in the case, to put the following questions:

Is this place of worship in the Trust of the respectable gentlemen, whose names were published, who had undertaken the Trusteeship, and upon the pledge of whose names, the public contributed to the building? Is the present a legal Trust? Are they chosen by the subscribers? Is the property secured to the congregation? Have not the present Trustees mortgaged the chapel? Is not the place of worship alienated from the intention of the original subscribers? May it not become private property?

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Fub.March 1826. for the Congregational Mag. by B.J.Holdsworth.S: Fauls Church Yard. London.

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A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOHN HOOPER, A.M. (Extracted from the Manuscript of a Sermon delivered at Old Gravel Lane Meeting, Dec. 18, 1825, by the Rev. Joseph Fletcher, A. M.)

THE REV. JOHN HOOPER, was born in the year 1780, at Wareham, in Dorsetshire. In early life he was designed by his parents for a secular calling, and his connec tions were members of the national church. By the care of Divine Providence, he was preserved in his youth from the vicious habits and sceptical principles to which so many, with awful prematurity, are devoted; though it was not until his eighteenth year that he became impressed with the importance, and felt" the power" of true religion. Educational associations naturally attached him to the liturgic service of the Establishment, and produced a lively interest in attending its worship. Such was the effect of these predilections, that many painful struggles were experienced by our departed friend, in going through that subsequent process, which terminated in his honourable and conscientious secession from its communion. Under the ministry of a Dissenting pastor, then resident in his native town, his mind received its first serious convictions respecting the great realities of religion. After that memorable period, he found that the instructions to which he had formerly listened with unsuspecting confidence, were not such as met his inquiries and anxieties. There was, as it appeared to him, no alternative; his spiritual interests were involved in the question; and NEW SERIES, No. 15.

as the practical result of thoughtful reflection and fervent prayer, he united himself with the Congregational church at Wareham.*

Not long after this period, the Rev. James Banister succeeded the Rev. Dr. Cracknell, in the pastoral charge at Wareham; and under his judicious sanction, our friend was led to direct his attention to the work of the Christian ministry. The account which he delivered in this place, on the 23d of May, 1810, at his ordination to the pastoral office, con

In an obituary" of Mr. Hooper, lately published by the Rev. Jacob Snelgar, the early religious feelings of our friend, some interesting passages, illustrative of are taken from a short-hand manuscript found amongst his papers. Adverting to his joining the Dissenters, Mr. Hooper says, "I became uneasy respecting my attendance at church; not being satisfied with the moral essays I was accustomed to hear; in which the name of Christ (which was now become music to my ears) was almost, if not entirely excluded: while the dignity of man and the beauty of moral virtue, was substituted in its stead. I say, I felt uneasy and came to a resolution to leave it; that I might attend religious worship among the Protestant Dissenters : where I thought I might benefit my soul, and increase my knowledge of divine things.--Now I met with some obstacles: such as the remonstrances and entreaties of my friends; the scoffing and jests of some among any companions; but to all which I was enabled to turn a deaf ear. I found much advantage from the conversation of those Christian friends, into whose company I was now introduced. felt an increasing thirst after knowledge; with a growing pleasure in private devotion and in the reading of the Scriptures."

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