rights of private judgment, was sensible of the weakness of the human intellect, and felt the difficulties of truly upright minds on points wherein he and they could not agree. Every possible allowance therefore he was disposed to make for the mistaken reasoning of others, not daring to attribute what he accounted error to a depraved temper, without such evidence of the fact as could not be resisted. And all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth, of whatever denomination, he cordially embraced, and was ever ready to serve to the utmost of his power. Zeal and love, steadiness and candour, seriousness and cheerfulness, integrity, I will add, and the most perfect frankness of temper, he considered not only as reconeileable, but as virtues which reflect a real glory on each other. With these his profession as a Christian and a minister was adorned, while his general character was held among all ranks of men in the highest respect for probity, honour, and benevolence.

Imperfections he doubtless had, but they were of such a kind, and contrasted with such real excellencies, that they who knew him required but a moderate degree of candour to overlook them. And although, on some extraordinary occasions, he might in a small degree be carried beyond that evenness of temper he aimed always to preserve, yet such warmth could produce only a transient effect upon their minds, who had continual proof before their eyes of the generous principles which uniformly governed his conduct. The restraints however he laid on himself, in some situations of peculiar trial, did singular honour both to his good sense and piety.

In such manner did he demean himself as a Christian minister and pastor of this church. Permit me, before I pass on to the other relations he filled in life, to address the people of his charge in a few words of sympathy and exhortation.

Those of you, my dear friends, whose heads now begin to be silvered with age, well know his manner of coming in and going out among you, from the earliest stage of his ministry to the close of his life. And I am persuaded the impressions made on your hearts, by his fervent zeal, by his tender sympathy with you in your sorrows, by his cordial friendship, and

by his prudent and exemplary conduct, will not soon be erased. No. I see the silent tear fall from your eyes, and can easily imagine from my own sensations what are the painfully-pleasing feelings of your hearts. He loved you and you loved him. May his memory be embalmed in your bosoms with a fragrance that no length of time can dissipate!

And you, my young friends, who received your first religious impressions from his awakening ministry, for whom he travailed in birth till Christ was formed in you, and who were initiated by his kind hand into the school of your divine Master; your sorrows abound. In the language of Thomas to his fellow-disciples you are ready to say, Let us go and die with him a. Deprived as you are of your spiritual father, your able instructor and guide, you may be allowed to weep. But let not your sorrow exceed its due bounds. Remember, your tears, if turned into a right channel, will become occasions of joy. Consecrate therefore, I beseech you, that grief you feel on this occasion to the glory of God, and your own furtherance in real piety. The frequent remembrance of those devotional exercises of your hearts under his ministry, which gave birth to your profession, will be of no small use to you in the future course of it.

With you all, my friends, I heartily sympathize. Your loss is great, very great; but Oh! how great is his gain! It is greater, far greater, than words can describe or heart conceive. Methinks I hear him bid you wipe up your tears, kindly adding in the language of his divine Master when he took his leave of the apostles, If ye loved me you would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father b. But you have this further cause of joy, on which I would wish you to dwell in your meditations, I mean the consideration that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. He changes not. He pities you, and in his own good time will send salvation to you. The place of his faithful servant whom he has received to the arms of his mercy, he can, and I trust will soon supply with a pastor after his own heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. To that end let me entreat

a John xi. 16.

b John xiv. 28.

you to cultivate the most cordial friendship and unanimity among yourselves. Beside the advantage which will result. thence to yourselves, you will thereby give the fairest proof, to all whose eyes are fixed upon you at this juncture, of that real affection you bear to his memory, whose departure, amidst these ensigns of death, you so feelingly lament. I beseech you also to pour out your united supplications to God for a large effusion of his Spirit upon you all; and may that fervency accompany your prayers, which so remarkably and pleas→ ingly distinguished his on many occasions of social worship! Be thankful that he was continued so long among you, and that you reaped so much real pleasure and advantage from his enlivening and edifying ministry. In fine, Remember him that had the rule over you, and who spake to you the word of God, and follow his faith, considering the end of his conversa

tion a.

A word I must also address to those who have long attended his ministry, but alas! remain still strangers to the vital power of religion. Would to God that his death may be the happy mean of effecting that, which neither his convincing reasonings nor his warm expostulations could compass! an object which he had much at heart, and which will I doubt not, when you come to have a right sense of things, greatly endear his memory to you. Call to mind the solemn truths he held up to your view, to awaken you to a serious concern for your everlasting salvation; the powerful arguments he urged upon you, to dissuade you from the service of sin and Satan; and the affectionate terms in which he represented to you the tender compassions of the Lord Jesus Christ for the chief of sinners, and the unsearchable riches of his grace. And seriously consider with yourselves what an awful account you will have to give at the tribunal of the great God, if you shall be found to have treated all these things with negligence and contempt. But I hope better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though I thus speak. May you behold his face on that great occasion with joy and not with grief, and share with him in those unutterable pleasures, to the enjoyment of which

he so ardently wished to be the happy instrument of conduct

ing you!

reading, all hap

Hitherto we have considered Dr. Evans in the characters of a Christian minister and pastor, let us now view him in that of a tutor. His good sense and piety, the education he had received, his acquaintance with men and things, and the knowledge he acquired by diligent study and pily qualified him for this important office. A seminary for the instruction of pious young men for the ministry, had been long established in this city. But the respectability to which it quickly arose, upon his entrance on this department, was owing both to his generous and indefatigable exertions among his friends, and to the great ability, prudence, and diligence with which he presided over this excellent institution. The improvement of those committed to his care in useful literature, particularly in those branches of it which, with the blessing of God, might render them acceptable preachers of the word, was his earnest wish; and his incessant labours to that end were crowned with no small success. His sanguine expectations may indeed in some instances have been disappointed, yet he had the happiness of seeing many churches, in the neighbourhood and at remote distances, supplied from hence with able and successful ministers. Nor will those worthy and useful men easily forget the obligations they owe to his excellent instructions and wise counsels, all which they received from him, as with freedom and faithfulness, so also with fervent piety and endearing friendship.

The perfect harmony, too, which subsisted between him and a neighbouring minister lately deceased, who assisted in the academy a, reflected no small honour upon them both, while it contributed greatly to the success of the grand object they mutually had in view. The decease of that valuable man was one among the many afflictions which deeply wounded his heart. They are now, alas? both removed, and we deeply lament the almost irreparable loss. God can, however, and it is our earnest prayer that he will, supply the places which they with so much honour filled in this useful institution, by men

a Rev. James Newton,

endowed with the like gifts and graces which qualified them for these important stations!

ever.

room.

May you, my young brethren, who by this affecting providence are deprived of your generous patron and able instructor, be comforted under your heavy loss with the consideration, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for That God who has taken away your master whom you dearly loved from your head, knows how to pour a double portion of his Spirit upon those whom he may raise up in his Call frequently to your remembrance the many seasonable instructions he daily gave you, the many fervent pray→ ers he poured out for you, and the edifying example he set you. And may that affection which you wish to express in every possible way for his character and memory, be an additional motive to those more noble ones of zeal for the glory of God and the good of men, to stimulate you to the most diligent exertions, in the prosecution of your further preparatory studies for the ministry. So may you, my dear friends, having received that unction from the holy One which teacheth all things, appear with distinguished lustre in the Christian church, and approve yourselves workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

And now after what hath been said of this excellent man, in the characters of a Christian minister and tutor, it might naturally be supposed I should have little further to add respecting his exertions in public life. But it is otherwise. He considered himself as moving in a larger sphere than hath been described, and was disposed to embrace every opportunity that offered of glorifying God and promoting the good of mankind. Opportunities indeed he sought, and, favourable ones arising, he was ever solicitous to improve them to the purposes just mentioned. Among the many schemes he meditated for the public good, those of erecting and supporting schools for the instruction of destitute children, and clothing them a; and of building places of public worship in neighbouring villages b, deserve to be particularly mentioned. In

a Broadmead, Bristol; Downend and Mangotsfield, near Bristol. Downend, Thornbury, &c.