Ministerial Work
Andrew Reed
Before he was quite t’enty-one years of age, Mr. Reed received an invitation to become quarterly lecturer at the New Road Chapel, where, from his youth, he had been in membership. And so attached were the people to him, that on the resignation of Mr.
Lyndall, the minister under whom the youth had sat and learnt, they offered the pastorate to him; although then he had not completed his college course. A meeting of the Church was called, to decide on the choice of a pastor. Four names were submitted to the meeting, but the vote was so large and unanimous in favour of Mr. Reed, that the circumstance proves, overwhelmingly, the high esteem in which the young man weis held.
Unquestionably, he had begun to make his mark as a diligent worker and a consistent Christian minister. As might have been expected, his parents felt deep joy and gratitude at this turn of events. Contrary to their expectations, their son would remain at home, and his own family would listen to his voice in the pulpit. This circumstance would however, prove, without doubt, somewhat of an ordeal to the youthful preacher. But there had been such perfect sympathy between the parents and the son, in relation to Christian experience and work, that much of what would otherwise have been naturally shrunk from, was accepted, and enjoyed between them.
In writing of this invitation to New Road Chapel,* Mr. Reed said, “When it is remembered that at New Road Chapel I attended for many early years; that there I first gave myself to the Lord, and afterwards to his Church, and that there I have enjoyed most of spiritual communion, I think you will cease to wonder, yea, I almost imagine you will commend my choice.^ After preaching on probation for some time, his ordination was fixed for his twenty- fourth birthday — November 27th, 181 1. This solemn service was conducted according to the usual mode of the Congregational or Independent denomination. First of all Dr. Robert Winter gave a short introductory address on the constitution of the Congregational Churches; then the senior deacon of the Church related the circumstances connected with the invitation to the young pastor; and a venerable minister put a number of questions to Mr. Reed concerning his faith and doctrine. Having answered these questions, seriously and thoughtfully, the ordination prayer was offered by the Rev. Matthew Wilks, while the hands of several ministers present were laid on Mr. Reed’s head. A solemn charge to the newly-ordained minister was then given by his old college tutor, the Rev. George Collison; while the Rev. John Clayton followed with an exhortation to the people.
As might be supposed, the place was crowded. About one hundred ministers and students were present, to say nothing of the general congregation. It was a very solemn time for all present. Earnest desires for the young preacher’s usefulness pervaded every breast, while he himself constantly prayed “Lord, make me eminently and extensively useful.” The whole after-life of Mr. Reed proved that this prayer was abundantly answered. As a faithful minister of Christ for fifty years, he served God’s cause, and taught the people; while throughout that long period, the congregation were accustomed to keep up the anniversary day of their pastor’s ordination with ever-increasing love. The high standard which Mr. Reed set before himself, in the ministry of the Gospel, weis never suffered to be lowered; and added years only brought with them riper experience and greater usefulness.
From this time the services in the quaint old chapel were attended by crowded congregations. Numbers were admitted into Church membership, and students from different colleges were so attracted by Mr. Reed’s style of preaching, that each Sunday saw crowds of them sitting attentively under his ministry.
But soon after his ordination, — within six months, an accident occurred which nearly put an end to Mr. Reed’s usefulness and life together. One morning he and a friend started on an excursion; and while driving down Wood Street, Cheapside, the horse took fright, and started off at so terrible a rate that no efforts of theirs availed to check the animal Two large waggons were coming down the very narrow roadway; the hinder wheel of Mr. Reed’s chaise caught in one of the waggons, and the two friends were pitched on to the road. The other gentleman escaped without injury, but Mr. Reed himself was thrown under the horses in the second waggon, and was too much stunned to rise immediately. Two of the horses passed over him, and one of them mercifully grazed his cheek with its hoof. This seems to have partially restored his senses in time for him to perceive that an enormous twelve-inch wheel was rolling towards him. Had it passed over his prostrate body, his course would then and there have been ended; but strength enough remained to enable him to spring to his feet, at the last moment, and stand aside. The danger was averted, but Mr. Reed himself relapsed at once into unconsciousness, — the strain on mind and body was too terrible. A bystander caught him as he was falling, and carried him into a neighbouring house, where medical aid weis obtained; and after a while strength sufficient to return home was given. We need not wonder that Mr. Reed observed this day during the whole of his after-life with gratitude and prayer.
Among the good works of Mr. Reed*s early ministry were efforts to promote the circulation of the Bible, and plans for more efficient Sunday-school organisation. As the result of these efforts, an Auxiliary Bible Society, and an East London Auxiliary to the Sunday School Union, were formed. He became the honorary secretary to the Society for the Circulation of the Bible; and devoted himself to the maintenance and instruction of preparation classes for teachers, in the East End. He further took a deep interest in all missionary proceedings, being as anxious to send the Gospel to the far-away regions in heathen lands as to the Londoners at his own door. It was during this time also that his desire to help the orphan was developing itself; but as that work was, strickly speaking, outside of his purely ministerial work, we shall treat of that at length in our next chapter.
About four years and a half after his ordination, Mr. Reed was married to Miss Holmes of Castle Hill, Reading. This union, however, only stimulated his ardour in good and self-denying works; for within about a year after we find him busy on a selection of hymns, intended to be used in public worship. He composed many hymns for this selection, — hymns which are still in use in the Congregational and other Churches of England.
At the end of seven years of this ministry, the church at New Road grew so strong in numbers and in financial matters that Mr. Reed’s salary was doubled. It was done unknown to him, and he was very diffident about accepting it However, after consideration, we find him writing thus in his diary about it, and devoting his surplus income to works of charity. “I would rather have relinquished it for ever, than have incurred the reproach of being avaricious. Nothing weakens a minister’s character more than that vice. The advance, now I have it, affords me pleasure from two considerations. I shall feel perfectly at ease about household expenses, and shall he able to give a guinea to distress where before I have been obliged to withhold it. I have resolved with my dear wife, first, not to lay by a shilling of my salary; second, to live as economically as is suitable to our station and character; thirdly, to devote the surplus to objects of benevolence.”
This last resolution gives the key to his constant and surprising charity. Amounts which would have been deemed generous from a millionaire, were given, or guaranteed by him, on behalf of the different benevolent Asylums which he was the means of founding; but the secret of his liberality is to be found in this resolution of his married life. And his sons tell us that he never permitted an increase of salary afterwards; while he discharged gratuitously his official duties in connection with the various institutions, even defraying out of his own pocket the travelling and other expenses incurred in so doing. And so truly generous was his heart, so benevolent were his intentions, and so deep his sympathy for all forlorn and suffering ones, that these acts of self-denial only delighted him. So far from being sacrifices, they were actually pleasurable actions, because done in the service of God and of humanity.
When he had been about ten years in the ministry, he lost his only sister, Martha. From the references made to her in the first chapter of this sketch as his beloved schoolfellow and playmate, it will be understood how very near and dear she had become to him. But she was struck down now by severe illness; and after months of suffering, passed away to that heaven whose glories she had so longed to know. Mr. Reed suffered intensely under this blow, so intensely, that for five long years he could not trust himself to write in his journal, as heretofore, of his daily work and experiences. But he summoned courage to write a memoir of Miss Reed, which memoir was the means of doing much good, not only in the circle in which the young lady had moved, but throughout the denomination. A few extracts from it will serve to show the intensity of his sorrow for his only sister.
Writing after her death, he says: “I crept to the room as if detection would have made it absolutely impossible to take this last look. The room was associated with manifold recollections of the most cheerful, pleasant, and blessed kind. Now it presented a picture of the most entire desolation. Its furniture was a coffin, its inhabitant a corpse. The only sign of life about it was derived from a poor robin, which sat in the opened frame of the window, repeating its short wintry note as if asking for the food it had often received, but had now sought many days in vain. I approached the coffin. Those eyes, those ears, those hands had never been utterly insensible to me; but now they were so. It was not to be endured.”
“Then it was that I felt the kindred tie of blood,
the dearest attachment of the heart had been rudely burst asunder; that she who had shared in my earliest recollections, my best enjoyments, my deepest affections, that £he who had grown up at my side, shedding the light, and love, and gladness of her presence around me, till it seemed almost the necessary element of my existence; that my sister, my only sister, was no more, that I was sisterless and could not be otherwise.^’
After seventeen years of constant service at New Road, the people there decided to build another chapel, larger and more handsome than the old one, at a cost of nearly ;^8,ooo. Of this sum, Mr. Reed gave a large proportion. The new erection was called Wycliffe Chapel,” in honour of him who has been so aptly styledj “The Morning Star of the Reformation.”
Mr. Reed had a singular etperience during the erection of this chapel. It was his custom to pay daily visits to the building, as it arose under the workmen’s hands, so satisfying himself that all was proceeding as it should be. But one night he had a very remarkable dream. He dreamed that a person came to tell him that a serious accident had happened, and that his presence was required on the spot immediately. In obedience to the vision, which d preyed on his mind, after he had entered his study at the usual time after breakfast he put by his books and went down. At the works he- found everything in confusion; the masonry of the vaults had given way, so that the rain had made an entrance during the night.” The workmen were hastening to patch up the flaw before anybody should detect it,’’ but Mr. Reed’s providential appearance on the scene led to the work being properly performed, and the risk of future accident avoided. Some of the work had to be rebuilt under the surveyor’s direction; but ultimately, through this warning dream, all mischief was averted. Mr, Reed ever referred gratefully to this incident.
During this part of his ministry, Mn Reed entered the field of authorship, by publishing what was then called a “a religious novel.’’ He had written sermons and tracts before, but this was an entirely new venture* The work was entitled ^’No Fiction,’* and purported to give in the guise of a tale the history of a young man who had rebelled against early religious light and teaching, had left his home, enlisted in the army, gone out to Canada, and after passing through very severe mental experiences, had found peace and pardon at the feet of Jesus. The tale was wholly founded “on the erratic and dangerous course” of a dear friend who formerly lived under the roof of Mr. Reed’s parents, and who cast away chances of honourable usefulness in his young manhood in order to indulge his fits of eccentric and drunken wilfulness. He was afterwards partially reclaimed, and returned to England an altered man; but from some evil influences he fell again into sin and sorrow, and turned against Mr. Reed, accusing him of unkindness and insincerity. Nevertheless, as the design of the volume had been to give a warning to young men by means of a narrative founded on facts, the book amply answered its end. Numerous instances of conversion and blessing to its readers were brought to the knowledge of the author, not only in England but also in foreign lands. The book was translated into Dutch and into French, and had an unprecedentedly large sale in America.
The hero of the book afterwards became so deranged as to need putting under restraint, but in after years, when partially restored again, he sought earnestly for Mr. Reed’s friendship and forgiveness. And when, after the lapse of fifty years, Mr. Reed retired from his pastoral duties, this man wrote a warmly sympathetic letter to one of the good minister’s sons. In it he acknowledged his mistakes in the past, and paid a high tribute to the writer’s rectitude of life and principle. It was a striking proof that in the end right always triumphs.