sionary labour-the Lord adding to our churches many precious souls. I have baptized about forty since January, and on my return, the administration of this blessed ordinance to several new converts, will be one of my first solemn and delightful duties."

existed nearly two hundred years, may revive and prosper, and that a divine blessing may accompany the above effort to promote the cause of Christ in this populous town, must be the prayer of every friend of Zion.

HOLLAND.

Rev. Gasselten Mewfeen, D.D., an excellent and talented minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, Holland, has adopted bap tist principles, and lately been baptized. This has led him to relinquish his former charge, and accept the oversight of a baptist church recently formed in Holland. He lately visited Hamburgh, where he gained the love of the whole church by his amiability and Christian deportment. Mr. Oncken says, "He appears to be just the man for the important field opening in Holland, where he is devoting all his energies to the good cause." Mr. Oncken has placed 200 guilders at his disposal, for printing and circulating tracts, with the promise of furnishing more, should the liberality of English brethren enable him to do so.-Christian Reflector.

ORDINATIONS.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

The Rev. R. Pengilly, for thirty-eight years the pastor of the church meeting at Tuthill Stairs chapel, having resigned his charge and removed to Egglescliffe, near Yarm, and being succeeded by the Rev. G. Sample, late pastor of the church at New Court, in the same town, and originally a member at Tuthill Stairs, the public recognition of the latter in his new relation took place on the 5th of November last, when, after the reading of the scriptures and prayer by the Rev. A. Reid, independent minister of the Postern Chapel, Mr. Pengilly delivered a short introductory discourse; and having received replies to the usual questions, the recognition prayer was offered up by the Rev. D. Douglas of Hamsterley, and succeeded by an address from Mr. Pengilly to his successor, founded on 1 Cor. xv. and part of 58 verse; after which the Rev. C. H. Roe of Birmingham preached to the church from Deut. i. 38, "Encourage him ;" and the Rev. R. Pringle of Clavering Place chapel concluded. In the evening a numerous tea-party assembled at the Victoria Rooms, when the desirableness of substituting for the present inconveniently situated place of worship one more adapted to present circumstances, having been introduced and warmly advocated, liberal contributions towards the attainment of the object were at once promised, and the list has since been considerably enlarged. That this ancient church, which has now

WELSHPOOL.

The Rev. C. Carpenter, late pastor of the baptist church, Somers Town, London, has accepted the unanimous invitation of the baptist church at Welshpool to become the pastor, and has entered upon his new and important sphere of labour with encouraging prospects of success.

BISHOP BURTON, BEVERLEY, YORKSHIRE. The Rev. J. Voller, late of Sulford, having accepted an invitation to the pastoral office from the baptist church at Bishop Burton, commenced his labours there on the first sabbath in December.

RECENT DEATHS.

REV. WILLIAM KNIBB.

It grieves us much to find ourselves called upon to record the unexpected removal from the earth of one who has been an eminent benefactor to his species, and of whom it might have been expected that his powers of body and mind, which had scarcely reached their zenith, would be employed in the promotion of the highest interests of his fellow men for many future years. What was Mr. Knibb's precise age we cannot at this moment ascertain, but we think it could not be more than forty-three; though it has been for all practical purposes a long life that he has lived in that space of time. needless to refer to his warmth of heart, his magnanimity, his good sense, his constitutional vigour, or his manly eloquence-with these our readers generally are well acquainted. A slight sketch of his course will, however, be acceptable to many.

It is quite

William Knibb was born at Kettering in Northamptonshire. He served his apprenticeship with Mr. J. G. Fuller, who for many years carried on an extensive business as a printer, at Bristol. At the close of the term, or soon afterwards, Mr. Thomas Knibb, who had been sent to Kingston by the committee of the Baptist Missionary Society, to conduct a school connected with the church there under the care of Mr. Coultart, and who had been very usefully engaged in that service, and as a preacher during the short term that was allotted to his continuance, died after only three days' illness. William Knibb promptly offered himself to occupy the vacant post. He was accepted, and sailed from London with Mrs. Knibb, early in November, 1824. The vessel had

not cleared the channel, when tremendous gales came on, and it narrowly escaped destruction on the rocks near Beachy Head; but the wind providentially veering round, they were wafted from the scene of danger, and arrived in safety at Port Morant, on Saturday, Feb. 12, 1825. Under his management the school prospered greatly, while his services as a preacher were eminently acceptable. A new church was formed at Port Royal, of which he took charge; and his labours there were greatly blessed; but these duties, in addition to the superintendence of the school at Kingston, proved too much for his strength. For this, and other reasons, he removed in 1829 to Savanna-la-Mar, and was succeeded in the school by Mr. John Clarke, now of Africa, who had been sent out to relieve him. In the following year, however, the death of Mr. Mann deprived the large church at Falmouth of its pastor; and with the concurrence of his brethren, Mr. Knibb, though he had much to attach him to the station at Savanna-la-Mar, complied with the request of the church at Falmouth, and removed thither. He was already known to the people, and highly esteemed. "I called a church meeting," said Mr. Burchell, writing home shortly afterwards," when between four and five hundred members were present, special prayer meetings having been previously held. At this meeting, I endeavoured to impress on their minds the importance of being influenced by pure motives; and having addressed them in as conscientious a manner as I possibly could, I proposed Mr. Knibb, and requested a show of hands. I never saw such a scene. The whole church, to an individual, simultaneously rose up and held up both hands, and then burst into tears. My feelings were overcome, and I wept with them. This I said is truly the Lord's doing. Such a feeling I never witnessed before. Had you and the committee been present, I think you would have said, The path of Providence is clear and plain, and would have said to brother Knibb, Go thou, and the Lord go with thee.'" The Lord was with him; and in the midst of opposition from the adversaries of truth and righteousness, gave such success to his exertions that at the close of the following year the church numbered 980 members.

It was in 1832 that Mr. Knibb became extensively known to the British public. A formidable insurrection had taken place among the oppressed negroes; several chapels had been pulled down tumultuously by white magistrates and officers, among them that at Falmouth; a determination had been formed to expel all ministers of the gospel from the island; Mr. Knibb had been made the victim of cruelty and perjury, and passed through scenes of hardship and peril of the most extraordinary character; and he was requested by his brethren to lay before their friends in this country a statement of their sufferings,

and the yet greater sufferings of their people. He came; faithful to the trust confided to him, full of determination to succeed or perish, elevated to the stature of a giant by the magnitude of his undertaking, his heart ready to burst with sympathy for his negro fellow Christians; and he made an impression which those who witnessed it can never forget, and will not readily undertake to descrile. Suffice it to say that its effects were not confined to his own connexions, or to pious men of other denominations; philanthropy was excited in breasts that had not previously been warmed, and a spirit was aroused to which the government itself thought it prudent to yield. The abolition of slavery was enacted, and compensation for the chapels that had been destroyed was granted. When Mr. Knibb returned to Jamaica, he returned in triumph.

It is not necessary to refer specifically to his subsequent visits to this country, the greater portion of our readers having them in pleasing remembrance. We may be permitted, however, to mention that in our intercourse with him last summer we were particularly struck with the greater maturity of Christian character which was evinced in his deportment. The milder virtues seemed now to predominate, and prudence regulated him more evidently in all his movements than on former occasions. We rejoiced, indeed, in the thought that a man of so much practical wisdom, as well as goodness, should be a resident in Jamaica, and likely to possess extensive influence in its churches. But man in his best estate is altogether vanity!

The last Lord's day that Mr. Knibb spent on the earth, was spent in the service of his Master, and in a way remarkably congenial with his character. The following is an extract from the Falmouth Baptist Herald of Nov. 11th, written and published, therefore, before there was any suspicion among his friends that his voice would be no more heard in any of their public assemblies.

"On sabbath-day last, the ordinance of believers' baptism was administered by the Rev. W. Knibb, in the baptist chapel in this town, to forty-six individuals. The spacious chapel was crowded in every part, and the utmost decorum prevailed.

"The missionary sermon was afterwards preached by the Rev. T. F. Abbott, of St. Ann's Bay; after which, the newly-baptized were received into the church in the usual manner, and the ordinance of the Lord's supper administered.

"The evening service was rendered exceedingly interesting from the presence of our presbyterian and Wesleyan friends, the latter having closed their place of worship in order to be present. Their kindness was acknowledged by the Rev. W. Knibb, who preached on the glory of the gospel."

The glory of the gospel was, then, the

The yellow fever seized him on the following Tuesday, and on Saturday morning, November 15th, at twenty minutes before ten o'clock, he entered upon the enjoyments of those who are absent from the body, but "present with the Lord."

The following particulars are taken from the "Baptist Herald " of November 18th:"It was our melancholy privilege to be present with our departed brother, from the commencement of his last illness to the termination of his earthly career, and it will afford his numerous friends in this island and in England, much gratification to know, that all that medical skill and kind attention could do to check the progress of disease, and to allay suffering, was done, and that the end of our lamented brother was emphatically one of peace. He entered into his rest, enjoying calm and unshaken confidence in the perfect atonement of the Son of God. One of his last expressions, while he yet retained possession of all his faculties, was,

'A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On Jesus' arm I fall.'

"In the removal of this eminent patriot and Christian missionary, the Baptist mission has sustained an irreparable loss: his valuable partner and children have been deprived of a most affectionate husband and father; we have lost a faithful friend; the churches of which he was the spiritual instructor for a period of twenty years, a devoted pastor; and the victims of tyranny, oppression, and cruelty, an unflinching and eminently successful advocate.

"Christians of every denomination will, we are confident, unite every where, as those in Falmouth and its vicinity have already done, in exclaiming, A great man has fallen in Israel.'

"We cannot at present add more, but we hope that a memoir of our more than brother -Our FRIEND!-will be prepared at no very distant period. Farewell, thou favoured of the Lord! farewell, sainted spirit! may we meet thee in the mansions of the blessed.

and

'Servant of God, well done!

Rest from thy loved employ:
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy.'

"Brother Dutton read the 90th Psalm, and brother Abbott parts of the 4th and 5th chapters of the 1st epistle to the Thessalonians. Brother J. E. Henderson prayed, and brother Pickton then read the hymn beginning,

'Lord, we adore the vast design,

The obscure abyss of providence.' "Brother Burchell gave an excellent address from Rev. xxi. 4, and brethren Hutchins and Hewett concluded the mournful service.

grave in the chapel yard; brother Millard The body was then carried to the gave out that hymn which commences,

'Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb,

Take this new treasure to thy trust,
And give these sacred relics room

To seek a slumber in the dust.'

delivered a touchingly eloquent oration, the "The Rev. David Kerr, (Wesleyan) Rev. Walter Thorburn (Free church) ofEdmondson (Wesleyan) pronounced the fered up prayer, and the Rev. Jonathan gradually dispersed. benediction, when the sorrowing crowd

"Letters of sympathy and condolence were received from the Rev. Messrs. Blyth and Anderson, who were deeply anxious to testify their respect for our departed brother, by following his remains to the tomb, but were prevented by sickness. A letter also was received from our afflicted brother Tinson, him from paying the last tribute of affection to regretting the dire necessity which prevented the remains of one he had known so long, laboured with so cordially, and loved so well."

A friend at Bristol, Mr. J. H. Cuzner, has forwarded to us the following lines written on receiving the sad intelligence :—

Faithful and good! Friend, patriot, saint, well

done!

Stormy thy course, and weary oft, and worn With anxious care, while the oppressor's scorn

Enter thy Master's joy, and take the crown

Of life he gives thee: Much he gave thee here: Boldness unconquered, yet with sympathy

Blended, and tenderest love; the captive's tear, His iron fetters, cruel misery,

To thee he gave the honour to destroy,

Made thee the instrument in his right hand
F

To crush the tyrant's power, and sow with joy Jamaica's blood-stained soil, and Afric's weeping

land.

Rest thee in peace ;-join the immortal song
Chanted in bliss by that enfranchised throng,
By thee conducted to the radiant shore,
Where Afric's children shall be slaves no more.

REV. EDWARD MOISES, A.M.

We are indebted to Mr. Pengilly, late of Newcastle, now of Egglescliffe, near Yarm, for the following narrative. In a note which accompanied it, Mr. Pengilly says, "I am persuaded your readers generally would be exceedingly pleased if you copied into your pages the following extract from a memoir recently printed in the north of the kingdom, of the most eminent man in literary attainments that has appeared in this part of the kingdom for many years. The writer is a relative of an eminent peer, although not unwilling to be called the minister of a baptist chapel;' and in himself, as well as in the subject of his memoir, we have a most lovely display of the renewing, humbling, and sanctifying power of the Spirit and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ."

"The subject of the present memoir was born, we believe, in Newcastle, and nephew to the late Hugh Moises, a long time the celebrated master of the Free Grammar School in this town (tutor of the late Lords Eldon and Stowell)-a situation which he himself occupied for some years, together with the morning lectureship of All Saints, and the afternoon lectureship of St. Andrews, with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public. Mr. Moises held also, until his death, the vicarage of Hart, with Hartlepool, a chancellor's living given him many years since by the late Lord Eldon; but so little was he of a mercenary turn, that when the late bishop of Durham sent him a fifty pound note for some literary service, he politely returned it, and would take nothing excepting in value of books from the bishop. The writer of this memoir well remembers to have heard him in his clerical capacity many years ago; and, abating the knowledge of truth of which he himself was ignorant at that time, to have been much struck with the impressiveness of his manner, and the earnestness of his delivery in the pulpit. But we are not careful to record by-gone circumstances very minutely, being only partially acquainted with them ourselves. We leave this office to the affectionate remembrance of his many attached pupils, and confine ourselves to more recent transactions.

"A little before his death, and previous to his last illness, he sent for an old pupil, with whom he had long lived in terms of intimate acquaintance, and after they had conversed

for some time, and his friend was about to take leave, he seized his hand, emphatically calling his pupil by name, saying, 'I love you. I believe you are a Christian, and know and love the truth. I cannot let you go, as I feel that my time upon earth must be short, until I unburthen my mind on a subject of the greatest importance; but I have never felt liberty to do so to any one till now, not even to my own family. Not that I was ashamed to confess the name of Christ, but that I doubted how far it might be expedient for me to make such a confession under present circumstances. I was afraid it might be mistaken for a death-bed repentance, and stigmatized as cant, coming from one who all his life has been opposed to the slightest allusion to religious experience.

"You and I have had many discussions on the subject of religion; but I now see things in a very different light from what I formerly did when looking only through the narrow glass of the church (meaning of England). I do not doubt that many whom I have all my life despised as out of the way, because out of the church, are now triumphing in redeeming love in heaven. I am thankful that I have been enabled to cast off the filthy garments of my own righteousness, and to know that Jesus hath arrayed me in his own he observed, We must be drawn out of self spotless robe.' With suppressed tears in his eyes, by an almighty power before ever we will or with comfort to repeat the words of a hymu can come to Christ, and now I am enabled I formerly ridiculed as nonsense:

'Come naked, come filthy, Come just as you are.'

He added, " Had it not been for the fulness and freeness of the invitation, as addressed by the Spirit to me, I with all my vileness never could have come at all."

"I begin to suspect that you are almost, if not altogether, right on the subject of religion. The church used to be everything to me, and Christ nothing, save as working through the church; but now I see that these forms and differences about which we have so often contended are insignificant, and Christ hath become my all in all. I have had most sweet communion with my Saviour, ever since the death of my grandson." (He had perished by drowning some months before;) and in reply to an observation made by his pupil with reference to the severity of that trial in connexion with the death of his son upwards of thirty years since by a similar providence, and the strong means sometimes required to bring sons to glory, he remarked, "The former grievously afflicted me, but the latter has brought me direct to my Saviour, from whom I pray constantly my deceitful heart may never be suffered to depart, for he is my light and my life, and has become my salvation.

I have made an idol of learning, and thought the word of God was only to be understood by study; but now I find otherwise. When I gloried in my knowledge of languages, I drew not near to Christ, but I have had more fellowship with my Saviour within these few months than I enjoyed in all my life before." To another he expressed great pleasure that he had been remembered, by prayer, in a baptist chapel, saying, it was very remarkable, as he had been so strongly opposed to dissenters all his life; but that it was very kind, and a sweet token of Christian love. On another occasion, being informed in a taunting way by a high church friend, that an old pupil had made an open profession of his faith by submitting to believers' baptism, he quietly remarked (very far contrary to the expectation of his friend) that he had long thought upon this point, and examined God's testimony thereon, and if he had life to begin again, he verily believed that he should become a baptist himself, for it never could be right to baptize unbelievers. He died March, 1945, at the advanced age of 83 years, in the full possession of all his faculties.

REV. T. BOYCE.

Died, December 2, 1845, at the Chapel House, Lays Hill, near Ross, Herefordshire, the Rev. Thomas Boyce, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

MRS. HENRY BRADEN.

The earthly course of this young Christian was brought to a triumphant close on Sunday,

the 14th Dec. 1845.

At an

Sophia, daughter of Mr. William Paxon, (till lately the secretary of the Baptist fund,) was born on the 12th October, 1814. early age she became the subject of decided piety, under the ministry of the Rev. Thos. Thomas, at Henrietta Street, London; and having made a public profession in the ordinance of baptism of her faith in Christ, she was admitted a member of that church in the year 1832, and her conduct as a member was uniformly amiable, kind, and courteous. She was married on the 12th May, 1834, to Mr. Henry Braden, a son of one of the deacons of that church, and ever lived with her husband on terms of the closest affection.

Having been confined a few days before her death, at a time when her constitution was greatly weakened by a previous severe illness, it became evident that her restoration to health was not to be hoped for, and on Saturday, the 13th December, her relatives were informed that medical skill could do no more for her, as she was sinking fast. She was fully aware of her state, and expressed herself conscious that her departure was at hand, and quite willing to die; her earnest prayer, frequently repeated, was, that her Saviour would

come quickly and receive her spirit." She sent for her four children, to whom she was devotedly attached, and was able calmly to bid them and her husband farewell, confident that God would preserve them and supply to them the loss they were about to sustain. For a short period a cloud passed over her mind, the enemy was suffered to try her with sore temptation, and she groaned heavily; but recovering, she said, "he had been trying to get her, but could not," and from this time she was happier than before. Her faith, resting simply on the righteousness of Christ, was firm; and being asked if she felt enabled to exercise it, she said, " Yes; it is small-but it is faith." From the constant motion of her lips, and from words occasionally uttered, her relatives were aware that she was repeating, as continuously as her failing breath would allow, passages of scripture and of hymns; particularly, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me;" and

""Tis religion must supply

Solid comfort when we die."

The sabbath having just commenced, and being told she would spend hers in heaven, she replied, "O yes, an everlasting sabbath;" and when asked if she wished to get better, said, "No, not now." Her eyes were now directed upwards with animation, and her hands extended in the same direction, while she was heard to address "Jesus," and her

mother," who died many years since. Presently she repeated thrice the word "praise !" leaving on the minds of all her connexions, and very shortly afterwards peacefully died, departure, an impression of the truth of and particularly of those who witnessed her Christianity, of the comparative insignificance of personal piety, which it is hoped may never of earthly things, and of the unspeakable value

be effaced.

the family vault under Little Wild Street She was buried on the 18th December, in chapel, the Rev. Dr. Hoby, of Henrietta Street, her minister, conducting the service on the occasion.

MISS CHERRY.

Died, Nov. 20th, 1845, Fanny, the eldest daughter of the Rev. Wm. Cherry, baptist minister of Milton and Burford. She was supported through a long affliction, occasioned by pulmonary disease, by the hopes which the gospel inspires, and was enabled to trust her soul in the hands of Him in whom she had believed.

MISCELLANEA.

PROFITS OF THE BAPTIST MAGAZINE.

The half yearly meeting of the proprietors of this magazine was held on the 19th of