Connexion with Spring-Hill College

Feom the weakness and depression described in the previous Book, IMr James only gradually recovered. Although he began about to resume his general public labours, the distressing apprehensions which had made him for several years almost invincibly reluctant either to preach or to speak away from home, had not wholly disappeared. So late as 184:9, his engagement to preach at Surrey Chapel, in connexion with the jubilee of the London Missionary Society, greatly agitated him. One Saturday afternoon, about ten days before the sermon was to be delivered, two or three of the Spring-Hill students were at his table, and he happened to say that he intended to read his discourse. “Isn’t that a pity, sir?” said one of the students. “Your sermons are a great deal more impressive when you speak freely than when you read.” “Well, sir,” was the reply, “there’s something in that, but I ’11 tell you how it is; if I read I shall be uncomfortable for the hour and a half that I shall be preaching, but I shall be tolerably comfortable till I am in the pulpit; if I don’t read, I shall be quite comfortable while I am preaching, but I shall have no sleep from now till it is all over.”

But there was one invitation that he could scarcely ever resist; till within the last year or two of his life, when he found that travelling was attended not only with inconvenience but with danger,

LTFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

any minister in the Midland counties could almost infallibly obtain a sermon from Mr James by asking him to preach on behalf of Spring-Hill College.

It was no uncommon thing, indeed, for his crafty admirers to make the offer of a collection for the college the bribe to induce him to pay them two visits. “Come and preach for my schools in February, and then you shall come and preach for the college in May;” or, “Come and preach at the opening of my chapel next summer, and you shall come and preach for the college within six months after,” was the substance of dozens of letters, and the bait was a very killing one.

He did not wait, however, to be asked to visit a congregation on behalf of Spring-HiU; I suppose there are few ministers in any of the larger towns of Warwick, Worcester, Gloucester, Northampto)!, Shropshire, Stafford, Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, who have not received from him letter after letter begging to be permitted to come and preach for it. Nor was he satisfied with pleading in public for a large collection. It was his custom, when ever it was practicable, to arrange for a meeting of some of the wealthier members of the congregation in the vestry before he preached, or at breakfast the next morning, and to press upon them individually the claims of the institution. Even this was not enough; notwithstanding his infirmities, he would call at house after house, and with remarkable tact and unflagging perseverance, though never with the brigand-like violence of some of the representatives of philanthropic and religious societies, beg for money. Sometimes, though not often, he begged in vain; sometimes he was confounded by his success. On one occasion, he called on a gentleman of great wealth and equal eccentricity, from whom he was very doubtful whether he should obtain a single guinea. Mr James’s friends had told him that it was certain his visit would be a failure; however he was not quite hopeless. The gentleman received him quietly, listened to his pleading without manifesting much interest and then rose and said, “Well, I will give you a cheque for £5000.” “Did I understand you rightly, sir?” was the reply. “Yes, £5000,” was the rejoinder.

In the internal management of the college, Mr James’s services were still more important. He was an unfailing attendant at the meetings of the General Committee; his sagacity aided the counsels, and his unwavering attachment sustained the courage, of the friends of the college through all the vicissitudes of its history. At the foundation of the institution he was elected chairman of the Board of Education, and held the office tiU his death.

To this Board is intrusted the responsibility of examining and admitting candidates; and of terminating the course of any of the students whose intellectual or moral qualifications for the ministry prove to be unsatisfactory. To it are reported any grave instances of irregularity in conduct, or carelessness in study. At the expiration of a student’s course, he appears before the Board to undergo the examination by which he obtains college testimonials.

As chairman of this important body, Mr James was nearly always present at its meetings, and exercised great influence on its decisions. His kindness and gentleness to the candidates for admission made the dreaded ordeal of examination before a council of theologians a very light matter; and when he was requested to convey official reproof to offenders, his affectionate anxiety to avoid inflicting unnecessary pain, deprived his rebukes of harshness and severity. His interest in the students had all the characteristics of a strong personal friendship. They were constant guests at his table. When he published a book which he thought likely to be useful to them, it was his custom to send every one in the house a copy. I believe that there are several Spring-HUl men now in the ministry who would testify that when their finances at college ran low, Mr James, having somehow discovered their circumstances, quietly assisted them from his own purse, or procured them assistance from the generosity of his friends. But the paper kindly furnished by my friend the Rev. W. Guest of Taunton, and appended to this chapter, on the influence which Mr James exerted on the life of the students, renders any further details of this kind unnecessary.

Many, however, will inquire with interest, What were the opinions of Mr James on the important subject of ministerial

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

education? To this inquiry, his position at Spring-Hill gives a full and unambiguous answer. It is unquestionable that his influence in the Educational Board, in the General Committee, and among the supporters of the college, was so great, that had he seriously disapproved of any part of the Sprmg-Hill system, it was in his power to have effected an alteration. For many years he was the main support of the college out of doors; his name procured both friends and students. More than any other man, he was responsible for everything.

Profoundly convinced that a fervent and vigorous religious life, a passion for saving men, and certain natural endowments which no culture can confer, are the indispensable qualifications for effective ministerial work, he was also extremely anxious to employ every legitimate stimulus to elevate the general standard of Nonconformist scholarship. In private conversation, and in his more formal addresses, he insisted very earnestly on the value of classical and philosophical studies. He approved of the affiliation of the Independent Colleges to the University of London. Though he saw that it was very possible for theological studies to be somewhat neglected through a student’s natural ambition to take a good degree, he did not attempt to conceal his disappointment and vexation when any of the Spring-HiU men failed at the university, and a gold medalist was sure to receive from him most hearty congratulations.

There were, however, some deficiencies in the Spring-Hill, arrangements which he would have been glad to see remedied.

He regretted the absence of direct and systematic training for public spealdng, though he confessed how hard it is to supply the deficiency. There can be little doubt that the keenness given to the critical faculty by classical and philosophical studies, makes many a youth who, when he entered college, could speak with rough vigour, timorous and feeble. He is in continual fear about the construction and cadence of his sentences, and about the consistency of his metaphors. In his anxiety for correctness, passion is quenched. He cares so much for finish, that force is sacrificed. His thoughts being divided between what he is saying and how he is saying it, there is a mental hesitancy which destroys the resoluteness and energy both of his thought and style. How much a tutor can do to enable a student to preserve his freedom, while increasing his accuracy, will vary with certain special qualifications of the tutor, and with the natural aptitudes of the student.

In the training for public speaking, which Mr James thought should be provided, if possible, in our theological colleges, he included the cultivation of the voice, and of general manner. Of the importance of a good elocution and graceful and impressive manner, he was never weaiy of speaking. In his “Earnest Ministry” he says: —” Manner is, so to speak, the harbinger and herald of matter, summoning the faculties of the soul to give audience to the truth to be communicated, and holding the mind in a state of abstraction from all other subjects that would divert the thoughts and prevent impression. It is not only the more illiterate and feeble-minded, not only the multitude who are led by feeling more than by reason, that are influenced by good oratory, but also men of the sturdiest intellect, and of the most philosophic cast of mind. The soul of the sage as well as of the savage is formed with a susceptibility to the power and influence of music, and, therefore,

to the power and influence of elocution Far greater nmnbers of our preachers fail for want of this, than from any other cause; a fact so notorious as to need no proof beyond common observation, and so impressive as to demand the attention not only of the professors, but the committees, of all our colleges. It is too generally the case that no adequate cultui’e is bestowed upon the speaking powers of our students, from the beginning to the end of their course of study. There is great assiduity manifested in giving them a fulness of matter, but far too little in producing an impressiveness of manner. Every assistance is granted to them to make them scholars, philosophers, and divines; but as to good speaking, for the acquisition of this they are left pretty much to themselves. Nay, it is not even inculcated upon them with the emphasis it should be, to try to make good speakers of themselves. A complete system of ministerial education must, of necessity, in- 2 A

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

elude some attention to elocution, which should commence as soon as a student enters college; so that, by the time he is put upon the preaching list, he may have some aptitude for the management of his voice, and not have his thoughts diverted then from his matter and his object to his manner. He should, by that time, have acquired a habit of good speaking, so as to be able to practise it with facility, and without study.”

He was also anxious for some plan to insure that all ministerial students should be engaged from the commencement of their course in religious work. Most of the Spring-Hill students have, during their first two years, taught in the Sunday school, or visited neglected districts in the town and neighbourhood, or conducted religious services in cottages; but Mr James thought that it would be well to require every junior student to undertake work of this kind. He knew that the spiritual earnestness of those who engaged in no such labour was likely to suffer, and that their evangelistic zeal was almost certain to decline. It is a question, however, whether the important end for which he was solicitous would not be most easily and efficiently accomplished by the private, friendly, and unofficial influence of the pastors of the students.

It was Mr James’s opinion that there are some men endowed with a remarkable faculty for interesting and swaying a popular audience, who are likely to be injured rather than improved by the attempt to make them scholars. Their early education having been neglected, the dreary toils of the grammar and lexicon would quench or dim their natural fire. Though destitute of schoollearning, they have had their judgment trained and their wit sharpened in workshops and factories. By hard though irregular reading, they have acquired considerable information, and in debating clubs and in mutual improvement societies, or in village preaching, have obtained a free command of vigorous and racy English. Mr James believed that by a course of instruction adapted to their jDeculiar wants, men of this class might be made very useful and efficient preachers; and he cordially supported the Editor of this volume in an attempt to institute, as an experiment, a “three years’ course” for students who, from their age or other circumstances, a2:)peared unlikely to derive benefit from the full curriculum.

At jIr James’s death, Spring-Hill had been in existence twenty-one years; and he must have contemplated its success with satisfaction. During that period, fifty-four students had completed their course; and while the Calendar of the London University afibrds proof that the college has won for itself a good literary position, he knew that there were faithful ministers, earnest missionaries, accomplished professors, who remembered Spring-Hill and the Chairman of the Board of Education with most affectionate gratitude.*

Of the fifty-four students who, during the first twenty-one years of the existence of the college, finished their course, forty-five entered the Congregational ministry; of the remaining nine,

The following table presents a complete view of what has become of the Spring-Hill students. Of those that had finished their course in 18G0, there were — Total, ... 64

Of the 21 Non-University men,
there have entered the ministry, 18
27 (Of these 2 have died since entering the ministry.)
Quitted for the Establishment,. 2
„ for other pursuits,.. 1

2
1
3

33 21

There have been 12 students who passed through only a portion of their coui’se. Of these there were — Total, ... 12 Of the 4 University men, there was Of the 8 Non-University men, there

removed by death,... was removed by death,.. 1 Removed by illness, or some other By illness, &c.,.... 7

cause of supposed unfitness for
the ministry, .... 8

7

Of the 33 University men, there
have entered the Congregational

ministry,

(Of these 5 have died since entering the ministry.)
Quitted the ministry through illness,

Quitted for the Established Church,
„ for other pursuits,

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAIVIES.

two quitted our ministry through illness, three to become clergymen in the Establishment, and four to engage in other pursuits. Of the forty-five, seven have already been called away from the toils of the ministry to its everlasting rewards.

In addition to the fifty-four who continued at college for the full term, there were twelve who passed through a considerable portion of the course; of these two died, and ten left college through confirmed illness or other causes. Of these ten, one or two have since become clergymen in the Establishment, and others have become ministers among ourselves.

Mr Guest’s paper on Mr James’s influence over the students, may be fitly introduced by an extract from an essay read by Mr James at an important conference on Ministerial Education, held in the Congregational Library in 184:5. He says: —

“We are not yet prepared for academic chaplains, or for wardens of our colleges; but there are other ways of supplying the deficiency, and accomplishing the object, and that is, hij extending the intercourse heiween our senior ministers and the students. How many eminent and venerable men are there in the metropolis, and in the provinces, whose age, experience, wisdom, and general excellence might, under proper management, and Avitli diligent application, be made to bear with the most salutary effect upon the minds, and hearts, and characters of their younger brethren! !Men who have passed through the studies, the difficulties, and the perils of a college life; who know by experience all the peqjlexities to which the neophyte is exposed, and have a lixid recollection of all that entered into their own curriculum of study; who have since added to this the knowledge of the ministerial and pastoral character; who know with what false or correct views they set out in life, what bad or good habits they contracted, what mistakes they made, and by what means they were corrected; — of what immense advantage may all this be made to those, before whom the path of ministerial life, and every step of it untrodden, is stretched out in somewhat appalling perspective, and on which, always without experience, generally without knowledge, and often without caution, they are preparing, and sometimes eager to enter! By a reflective mind, much may be learned by reading and cautious inquiry, — but what is a book to a living instructor? How much do the living voice, and ‘human face divine,’ kindness, and gentle earnestness of manner, the look of affection, and the tone of solemnity, impress all that is said upon the heart and memory of the attentive listener! How many counsels

CO^’NEXION WITH SPEING-IIILL COLLEGE.

might be given, how much sage and valuable iiistniction imparted, how many difficulties removed, and how many doubts solved, during an hour or two of free and friendly conversation between a student and a wise, experienced, and communicative minister of the gospel! No lecture of the class-room can either give so much practical wisdom, or give it -with, such effect, as may be delivered during such a season, and by such a method of intercourse ■v-ith such an adviser. ‘This,’ says the student to himself, ’ is the man who has tried the ex]ieriment: he is no theorist, but a practitioner; he syeaks experimentally; he has stood the test of thirty or forty years; has preached and warned all this time; has known the church and the world; has been blessed -with popularity and success; and he is now giving us the results of his exi:)erience, observation, and reflection, which are worth listeuing to.’ Yet, may it not be asked, rather wdtli the intention of exciting inquiry than of casting blame, how many of the venerable, and holy, and usefid ministers, either of the metropolis or the provinces, are thus making their influence bear xipon the students and young ministers? It is true they serve upon committees, and carry on the machincrj’ of the colleges; and so far their services are valuable and important; but beyond this, what direct intercourse have they with the students, what personal conversation? Do they seek opportunities to cultivate their acquaintance, and to do them good? Has it ever occurred to them to make their influence bear upon them?

“It will probably be asked, How would you have us act? Would it not be oflicious and obtrusive for any one who felt inclined to go, without special invitation of the students, or appointment of the committee, to any of their institutions, and summon the inmates to attend a lecture or receive an address? ilost certainly it woidd, and a wise and intelligent committee would prohibit it. But there are other ways in which, without any such obtrusion, the end may be accomplished.

“It may be yresumed, that all the students are members of some church, or, if not in actual feUowsldp as accepted members, are, when not engaged in preaching, in the habit of regular communion, under the pastors they have voluntarily selected; and, moreover, this ought to be ascertained by the committee, to whom each student should be required, soon after entering college, to make known the church with which he is in association. Every student ought to have a pastor, and the tutors or the committee ought to see and know that he has one. The very idea that he should cease to feel the obligations and to avail himself of the privileges of church-membersliip when he enters upon a coiue of trainuig for the work of the Christian ministrj”; or that his habits, as a Chiistian, should become loose, irregular, and desultory when he is preparing to be a pastor, is surely repugnant to all sense

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAJIES.

of propriety. The students ought not only to be in the regular habit of communion with their own selected church, but of attending all its church-meetings. They would thus learn pastoral habits, by seeing how the business of a well-conducted church is done, and by the practical exemplification of our principles of ecclesiastical polity, which is continually going on before their eyes, would acquire, almost without eflfort, the faculty of government: and it would carry on this training, if the senior students were to be employed in visiting the candidates for communion in common with the other members, and in making their report to the church of the fitness of such persons for fellowship. Every student, we repeat, should, during his residence at college, have a pastor. Here, then, is a relationship established, in virtue of which the pastor should be allowed the same access to the students who are under his oversight, as to any other of his members; nor are there any of his flock, in whose welfare he should take so deep and solicitous an interest, as those who are one day to be pastors themselves. It would be easy for him, if not to visit them at the college, yet to ask a visit from them at his own house: this would be at once less formal, and more efficient. How could he more usefully, or more pleasantly spend an hour or two occasionally, than by devoting it to such an occupation ] He need not fear an imwiUingness on the part of the young brethren to accept his invitation. The esteem in which he is held by themselves, and in which they know him to be held by the public, will cause them to feel that he is conferring upon them a favour which they ought not to be backward to accept. In the free and famiUar, yet dignified intercourse of those social and precious hours, what rich communications of wisdom and experience might be made to his youthful visitors, communications on every variety of subject related either to personal godliness, mental improvement, habits of study, modes of preaching, pastoral avocation, the controversies of the day, and, indeed, everything which has a bearing upon their future character and labours as ministers of the word, and which might be of serA’ice to them to the last hoiu’ of their ministry upon earth! Of course it should be his object to make the intercourse profitable, as well as pleasant; and, though cheerfulness need not be excluded, yet his conversation should not be made up of mere humour, amusing anecdote, and the relation of facetious adventure. His time, and theirs also, is too precious to be thus wasted; both parties should consider that they are together for high and sacred purposes — he to impart, and they to receive, the words of wisdom and the counsels of exjierience.

“It would not be desirable, however, to confine this intercourse mth the students to those ministers who are their pastors; it may hapicn, and probably does, in the metropoHs as well as in the provinces, that the greater part of the alumni are connected with only one or two churches, or at any rate with very few, and it would be therefore throwing too much of the duty and responsibility of such superldsion upon one or two men. It would tend much to keep alive the interest and efficacy of ministerial intercourse, and carry out to a greater extent the spiritual objects of our coUegiate system in reference to the students, if the committees were to consider themselves charged, as they certainly ought to do, ■«’ith the religious superintendence of the institution, and were, in pursuance and discharge of this solemn tmst, to appoint from their own body a quarterly visitation of the college, for the purpose, not of superseding the tutors, but of upholding them in their truly onerous and important duties. If such a plan were adopted, especial care should be taken to secure the cordial co-operation of the students, by making it in every respect agreeable to their feelings. There must be no suspicion that the visitors come in the character of inquisitors, spies, accusers, or informers, or even of reprovers; but simply as friends, counsellors, and guides. Their sole business should be such as shall make them welcome, and render their visit an object of desire, and not of dread. It would be also well for them not to invest themselves with an air of authority, or with the stiffness of formality; but to appear with the easy affability of a friend, and the affectionate tenderness of a father. The first hour of such visitations might be spent at the tea-table, in the flow of appropriate, friendly, and profitable conversation, and in answering such questions as would arise out of the topics of discourse. With a circle of twenty or thirty students gathered round an experienced minister of the gospel, there will be no lack of subjects of interest. But this holy conversazione should be followed by exercises of devotion, and a solemn yet affectionate address. What a fine opporturuty would be afforded to a man who felt the responsibility of his situation, and cherished an intense longing for the right formation of character in so many aspirants to the sacred office, to breathe into their soids the enthusiasm of his own! If the T.sitors entered thoroughly into the object of such addresses, and prepared for them, not elaborate and ornate discourses, calculated more to excite admiration than to produce impression, but solemn, affectionate, pungent appeals to the heart and conscience — appeals which should be of such a character as to leave the students as much without the power as without the aaIU to criticise — appeals which should compel them to steal away in silence and in tears to their closets and their knees; what results might not be expected? As it would fall to no man, even in the country, more than once in two or thi’ee years to deliver such a charge, he might well spare the time for so important an occupation, and summon all the energies of his soul to

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JA1IES.

produce an address which shall enter into the student’s innermost soul — shall make Mm in the same moment tremble and rejoice, and which, while it displaces from the field of vision all the little objects of a vain and low ambition, shall fill it with the one grand object of winning souls to Christ, and shall present that object invested with its own incomparable glory and surpassing importance. What preachers might we not look for from a succession of such addresses, delivered by our greatest and holiest men, all bearing upon the heart and conscience of the students, — addresses which shall not be mere fireworks of eloquence and oratory to amuse their imagination, but live coals, taken as with a seraph’s hand from the holy altar of devotion, to kindle them into flames of fire! Verily, we have no need to wonder, and no right to complain, that our rising ministry fall below some of the older ones, if the older ones do not take pains to make them better than themselves. It was said of Earl St Vincent, under whom Nelson was a pupil in the art of naval war, that he formed a greater hero than himself, and then admired him without envy. So ought it to be with the senior pastors of our churches. Useful and hapy)y is that minister who, when the student’s eye is looking round for an object to gratify the pantings of his youthful ambition, shall so fix it on the glory of the cross, that he shall never after be able or willing to escape the fascinations of that stupendous object. The men who have done most for their denomination, not only as scholars and as authors, but those who have served it well as preachers and as pastors, and who, in attracting attention to themselves, have fixed it upon their whole body, breathing their own spirit into the souls of our students, and stamping their own character upon these young minds while they are in a soft and tender state to receive the impression; and they should never forget that he who in the midst of such a circle is so employed, is not only speaking to the twenty or thirty individuals before him, but to the thousands whom they wUl at some future time address, and by this means learn to address more effectually, and is, in fact, perpetuating through many generations his own individual usefulness.

“To doubt whether our young brethren would value such attention from their seniors, would be a reflection on their piety, humility, and good sense, which all that know them would be unwilling to cast. Wherever the experiment has been tried, it has demonstrated the contrary. If, without being su.spected of egotism or vain-boasting, the writer of this paper may refer to his own practice, he may be permitted to state that he has made it a matter of sacred duty, arising out of his official connexion with Spring-Hill College, and his pastoral relation to many of its inmates, to maintain with his young brethren the intercourse here recommended. It has been. his custom, when other

CONNEXION VriTH SPETNG-IIILL COLLEGE. duties tlid not interfere, to invite two or three of the students every Saturday to. partake with him of the humble fare of Iiis own simple table, on which no luxuries are placed, not even wine, and which, therefore, could offer no inducement but the fatherly affection and friendly counsels of the host, whose invitations have ever brought around him, most willingly to them, and most agreeably to himself, the objects of his solicitude. During the dinner-time, and for another hour afterwards, the conversation is carefully directed to such topics as are likely to be of service to the guests, either in the way of promoting their personal religion, or their future ministerial and pastoral usefulness. There has been no lack of subjects to discuss, or disposition to discuss them; the tendency to practical mistakes, generally the result of youthful ardour and inexperience, as disclosed by passing remarks, has been corrected; juvenile indiscretion restrained; bashfulness and timidity encouraged; and, amidst and above all else, usefulness, as the great object of the Christian minister, has been held up to view with as much enthusiasm as the bost himself could command, while the means to obtain it, illustrated and confirmed by experience, have been pointed out. The time allotted to these interviews having expired, one of the young brethren prays, and he is followed, without their rising from their knees, by their friend who has received them at his house. He has already had his reward in the pleasure afforded by those seasons to Mmself, and it has been made far more ample by the gratefid acknowledgments and assurances of benefit, which he has received from many who have entered on their pastoral duties. To his brethren far better qualified than himself for such offices, he would earnestly recommend the same practice, assured that they will find in it some of the most delightful seasons of sublime enjoyment, and of extensive and enduring good, which the whole course of their muiistry will afford.”

To these interviews the paper, written by the Rev. William Guest of Taunton, one of the earliest of the Spring-Hill students, particularly refers. It was accompanied by the following note to the editor: —

“My dear Friend, — In compliance with, your request, I have sought, in the accompanying paper, to give a sketch of the influence Mr James exerted on the life of the students of Spring-IIill College in my time. Had it not been for your own kind persuasion, the paper would have been shorter, and yet the most lengthened and elaborate statement would fail to convey a just estimate of the value of Mr James’s relation to the students. Second only to his charge, as you

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

well know, did he regard this sphere of influence during the latter years of his life. — I am, my dear brother, yours most affectionately,

“William Guest.

“The Rev. R. W. Dale, M.A.-
MR guest’s paper.

Language, even when used by those who command its richest resources, is incapable of conveying a full impression of the influence of one powerful mind upon the mind of others. Who can adequately picture the benefit which a susceptible and aspiring disciple derives from constant and unreserved intercourse with one of the wisest and best of masters 1 This is the magnetic influence of soul upon soul; the secret force of thought upon thought; character upon character; and is hardly less mysterious than the silent and never-to-be-defined agency of the good Spirit of the Father.

Well may I feel, then, the inability of my pen to convey a just impression of the influence of Mr James on the college-life of the first students of Spring-Hill. It was clear to us that he regarded the institution as a sphere for the exercise of the most affectionate watchfulness and the profoundest interest. It was a new channel of usefulness, opened at the time when physical infirmities were threatening to narrow the circle of his hitherto widely-extended labours, and he threw himself into it with all the characteristic energy of his nature. It was not that the novelty of the institution interested him, nor did he regard his work in connexion TOth the students as a thing to be attended to by the by, as other claims permitted; but the influence he sought to exert on the college arose from a deep sense of duty to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. His sway, while not in the least obtrusive, seemed to overshadow us with holy and quickening power. His interest in us was never withdrawal; it never grew cool; it neither abated with time, nor became diverted amidst other labours.

Some of us had, by mutual arrangement, attached ourselves to the church worshipping in Steelhouse Lane; it made no difference to Mr James. His relation to all the students was at once pastoral and paternal; that also of the faithful friend and the wise counsellor. “He was one of our tutors,” writes an excellent minister, who was one of the early students, “as tridy as if he had filled a professor’s chair, and no small part of our training, for preaching and pastoral work, was directly or indirectly furnished by him.”

Mr James was chairman of the Board of Education. I never heard of one solitary instance in which there was anyhing approaching harshness in his treatment of a candidate. Tremblingly did some appear before the Board, prior to their admission to the college. They were young, and unused to an assembly of grave and reverend divines. They were plied -with questions wliicli were sometimes curious, often irrelevant, and not unfrequently very difBcult. The moment the chairman spoke, an apparently stern manner softened into the kindest considerateness. With the admirable tact which never failed him, he covered the confusion into which the candidate had been thrown. “I recollect,” says the writer just quoted,” giving a crude and incorrect answer tp a question involving a point of doctrine, and I have not forgotten with what a fatherly kindness Mr James noticed my error, and how his criticism was joined vrith. words of warm encouragement. From that moment I felt I had found in him a father and a friend, and so it proved.’’

Nor on such occasions only would our constant friend cheer us. If we met him on our walks, whatever the weather, or however pressing his engagements, he never appeared hurried to us. His face lighted up with an expression of interest; his hand cordially pressed ours; and minute inqmries about our health, studies, and prospects, would be followed by warm wishes, and words of counsel. Sometimes he would conduct our evening worship. I love to recall the sacrednesa of his serious smile as he sat among us on these occasions. Then, with what touching and tender eloquence he departed from his more pubHc custom of simply reading the Scriptures, and expounded the Holy Word! I well remember, to this day, his reading the second chapter of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians: how Ms words gave us deeply-moving glimpses of his ova exceedingly impressive views of a pastor’s relation to a flock; how he lingered over the words of the great apostle, — “We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:” “ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:” “how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.”

One mode of intercourse there was, which demands a fuller memorial, and the adoption of which was the fruit of Mr James’s deep interest in the college, and of the dehberate devotion of his influence to its welfare. It was his wont, almost every Saturday, to invite two or three students to dinner. Naturally might we have supposed that after a week spent in Uterary labours, and manifold services for the Church of Christ, and amidst the demands of preparation for ministering twice to a large congregation, the afternoon of Saturday would have put in its plea for repose. But herein we saw how real was his soUcitude for our happiness and usefulness. That day was selected because it was less likely than other days to be

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

broken in upon by unforeseen demands, or by visitors. It was this certainty of securing an uninterrupted interview, and our comfort, not his convenience, that guided the choice of the day. His wisdom was seen in the selection of the little party to whom the invitation was addressed. Those of us who were less earnest were asked to accompany the aspiring and consecrated; or those whose danger was a too eager devotion to literature, were invited -with such as were marked for their high spiritual life. There was a pleasant action, therefore, of mind on mind; and the common identity of sentiment, which went along with diversities of character, made the intercourse touch our life at all points.

To strangers there was often an apparent hurry of manner about ;Mr James. But to us on these Saturday afternoons, how manifest were his fatherly affability and the glow of his welcome! “Can you tell us the way to the house of the Rev. Mr James 1” was the inquiry from a labouring man, when the afterwards well-known residence was not so familiar. “Is it Angell James you mean V was the answer;” oh yes, any one knows where he lives.” “When the good man came down from his study, with a quiet manner, and his face illumined by a smile of interest and affection, and when he cordially said, “Well, Mr So and So” — never forgetting the name of the student he addressed — we felt that his assuring ministries of kindness well sustained the prefix to his name. At the dinner-table he presided with a considerate hospitality, the charm of which was heightened by his watchful care for the comforts .of his only daughter, who, though a confirmed invalid, m response to his feeling, vied vrith him in attentions to their guests. There was no reserve or assumption of dignity; Ms manner was marked by a cheerful seriousness entirely free from sanctimoniou.sness. With his hand on his ear, he would by patient queries draw from us information on subjects peculiarly interesting to ourselves; or he would elicit opinion, and even counsel, with unaffected earnestness, and would listen with eager attention.

Then came the moments laden with influences which to this day have moulded the pubUc life of many of us. Inviting us to form a little circle round the fire, he led the conversation to themes full of profit. Drawn aside from the literary work of the week, we felt ourselves brought into contact vnih all the spiritual responsibilities of that ministry to which we were looking forward. Uniformly, and yet most naturally, would he give this useful direction to the conversation. With a manner that entirely won our confidence, he would suggest rather than teach, would indicate rather than enforce. Oiu- own earhest and best impressions were revived and intensified, and we ourselves were led to express our convictions of the sacredness of the ministry as a

CONNEXION ■WITH SPEING-HILL COLLEGE.

testimony and entreaty of reconciliation between an offended God and perishing men; we could not help seeing how right it was to hold fast to the fundamental doctrines of repentance, regeneration, and faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ. But while he often pleaded with us to let the truths in our sermons be seen as lines obviously radiating from the cross, and so to make Christ and His saving work the living centre of oiu” preaching as that the hopes and purposes of our hearers might be drawn to Him, and guarded us against the modern tendency of employing a phraseology which, while aiming at novelty, falls often into the serious error of obscuring or altering the import of theological statements, he would not by one word depreciate scholastic attainments.

Not unfrequeutly he would call our attention to a distinguished preacher, pointing out vrith. admirable analysis the secrets of Ms success; or he would bring out some pithy and striking extract to read to us in illustration of the power of the pulpit. “There was,” as a beloved brother has said, “what I may fairly call a moral and spiritual mastery that he exercised over us.” “The rich results of his long exjjerience,” says another, “were placed at our disposal His wonderfid memory poured forth its varied stores. Jtlauy a beacon-light did he hold before us lest we should make shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience. Many an incentive to ‘patient continuance in well doing’ did he cuU from his own history, especially from the earliM- years of his muiistry. His constant admonition was, without holiness you cannot see nor serve the Lord. ‘Some,’ he once remarked, ’ have ldolated principle wMle aiming to be useful That is doing elal that good may come. Usefulness has been my one aim through Ufe, but I am no mere utilitarian.’” Still the burden of his counsels to us was, as we all shall testify, to aim constantly, to aim supremely, and to aim by the consecration of every talent we possessed, at usefulness in the conversion of lost men from sin to righteousness, and from the awful perils of an everlasting perdition to eternal salvation. If there was one thing in which, above all others, by look and tone he awoke our enthusiasm, it was while speaking of the high joy — which some of us have since been mercifully permitted, through God’s distinguishing gi-ace, to understand — of being instrumentally the means of saving souls from death. Over all our conversations the remarkable thing was, and the fear of iteration does not keep me from repeating it, his heart poured the fidness of its love, and our hearts were knit to his by the glow of its genial friendliness.

We invariably knelt before God at the close of the interview. After prayer from one of us, his own tender and affectionate intercessions were presented. We then learnt ’ how to pray:’ the heart was stirred to its depths; the fountains of sympathetic desires were un-LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

sealed. “I have often,” says one, “been silently melted into tears with his earnest supplications on our behalf. Far away from home and kindred, I seemed to hear a father’s voice pleading for me w-ith holy tenderness; and I cannot doubt that his intercessions ’ availed much ’ for all of us.” We usually separated about half -past four o’clock: we had met at two: he, mostly, leading his home with us to visit some sick member of his ilock.

Of course, the measure of the benefit of the intercourse on these Saturday afternoons depended upon ourselves; and there are few of us, it may be, who are not humbled as we are reminded how much greater ought to have been our improvement of these privileged seasons. But so far as my own recollections go, I do not remember any students returning to the college from these visits, upon whom there did not rest the softening traces of the interview. Well do I remember, also, how those brethren prayed at the evening meeting for prayer, wluch closed the duties of the week, who had come from the communion of the afternoon. No doubt is there, moreover, that the exciting, sanctifying, and manifold advantages of these memorable hours contributed very largely to prepare some for occupying so worthily the honoured positions they now fill. “I can distinctly trace to IIr James’s influence,” says a learned and beloved tutor in one of our colleges,” much that I shall never cease to be thankful for, and I am disposed to think that I shall err rather by defect than excess in the estimate I form of the good derived from intercourse with him. I am sure that I owe to the stimulus of these familiar social meetings more than I can express. The most solemn purposes and vows I ever recorded arose from the

impression of these gatherings I can only wish that every

aspirant to the Christian ministry had the privilege of similar counsel and stimulus.”

It will be seen that the main benefit of these Saturday afternoons was their quiclcening influence on our moral and spiritual life. The very thing this that we needed. At a time when the heart is so eminently susceptible — when there is so much mental activity — when enthusiasm can be so readily evoked, it is like murder to mental power to make men sit as the passive or mechanical recipients of the knowledge which a more learned man has to communicate. We are always recipients of God’s blessed gifts, but we are so, as the plants are of sun-light and atmospheric moisture; they are quickened into activity to take in, and appropriate, the precious influences around them. An elder -ndll do little good who expects to communicate knowledge or lessons of experience as we can pour water into a vessel, and who does nothing to educe thought, stimulate inquiry, and keep alive a happy mental action. I make the observation merely to indicate the real nature of Mr James’s influence upon us. There are few of us, it may be, who can recall the information he communicated. Nor do we care to do it. We all know this, that he had the art of making us happy and active, by touching the springs of the best part of our nature; that he helped us to know ourselves; that he aided us to form or strengthen our holiest purposes; that he led us to feel more deeply, avail ourselves of coUegiate advantages more industriously, watch against our peculiar perils more vigilantly, and implore the grace of the Divine Spirit, to prepare i;s for our responsible work, more fervently and importunately.

Two prominent characteristics there were, however, which marked Mr James’s influence upon the students, and which demand special mention. There was a rare discernment of character. With a marvellous intuition did he see the peculiar weakness, or perU, of every one of us. If there were any whose subsequent course justified his fear of the absence of Christian enlightenment, it was clear that no gifts nor scholarship could find for them a way into that innermost centre of his affections, in which he had the peculiar faculty of making men feel they had a place. He was the last man in the world ^ith whom hypocrisy could feel at home. We were all sensible that he knew us almost better than we knew ourselves. This gave him singular power over us. We felt he had taken the trouble to imderstand us. Men who would not have borne an iudiscrimiuating censor, jdelded full response to his counsels. The showy and superficial were stimulated to dig deeper. The scholarly became anxious to make fidl proof of their ministiy in winning sinners to Christ. The devout were impelled to study harder, while they prayed none the less. It is a high thing to say this. Interest in the collective body of an institution is not always followed by careful thoughtfidness for its individual members.

The other characteristic I refer to was si/mpathy. Mr James was no severe judge of a student’s failings. The timid forgot that they were in the presence of a man who had a world-wide reputation. We saw no airs of importance in him. There often seemed a childhke and most beautiful unconsciousness of his fame. He forgot himself in his visitors. Out of scores of interviews, I can hardly bring to mind one where he made mention of, much less paraded, the multitudinous duties that lay upon him. He saw so clearly the snares of our student-Ufe, he felt so solemnly the weighty responsibilities which were before us, he entered so warmly into the high joys and rewards of our subsequent luiiiistry, he was so manifestly anxious that we should reach the highest point of eminence and usefulness, — that his intercourse -with us can be expressed by no other term than that of a lively and unmistakeable sympathy. And so was it to the end, as later students will testify.

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

During the latter years of his life, I ever saw in Mm the same prompt interest in others. While he talked of his years, perhaps too frequently, because the reference would mislead a stranger, those who knew him better regarded it as almost an apology on his part for the confidence with which he gave advice. When the snows of age were upon him, they chiUed not the responsive attention with which he entered into the history of .your plans, fears, wishes, and hopes.

There were other modes whereby the pastor of Carr’s Lane co-operated with the three beloved and honoured tutors who at that time presided over our studies. “It gradually became the custom of Mr James,” writes Professor Creak, M.A., of Airedale College, “to join the tutors and students at the prayer-meeting held at the commencement of each term of our studies. The addresses delivered on these occasions were remarkable for the intense solicitude with which he pressed upon us the solemnity of our work, and sought to transfuse into our souls the earnest desire for usefulness so conspicuous in his own prayers and labours. These were hallowed occasions when the lessons of wisdom, enforced by our esteemed friend with the ardour of a mind deeply imbued with apostolic singleness of aim, were accompanied by the devout breathings of our tutors, commending themselves and the students afresh to the care of the Father, and the teaching of His Spirit, to fit us for the service of Christ.”

It was therefore this profound interest that the saintly and now sainted man took in the college, this quiet, pervasive, and holy sway that he so deliberately, and with such self-sacrifice, sought to exert over us, and above all, these constant opportunities of contact we had with him, that constituted the secret of his influence upon us. The readers of this biography will have before them a complete view of the character of him to whom I am permitted, on behalf of those who studied with me, to raise this loving, though humble memorial. I will therefore but advert to that one element of his character which gave him such ascendancy over us. This was his uncompromising fidelity to his convictions. We saw, from our close communion with him, that while he was never captivated with the merely popular, was never impetuous, often extremely cautious, he gave himself unhesitatingly to that which he believed to be the duty of the time: that when once he was convhiced a course would tend to the welfare of humanity, and the advancement of the cause of God, the conviction was immediately followed by corresponding exertion. We easily traced an eminent devoutness in Iiim to no transient or ephemeral emotion, but to this fidelity to himself and to God; for we beheld in him one who most firmly beUeved that power and efficiency could be sustained by Divine aids alone, and who, therefore, amidst the most thronging businesses, was obviously, and continually, drawing aside to receive the influences that descended upon his soul in the closest communion with God. We learnt as we sat by his side how this uncompromising faithfulness to conscience led him to deny himself of many an otherwise lawful enjoyment, lest his ministerial usefulness should be impaired; and when with him in society, we wonderingly saw how he would, impelled by the same sense of duty to Christ, guide the conversation for a whole evening into channels of high and profitable intercourse. Nor less instructive was that astonishing industry which sprang from the same faithfulness to personal conviction. It was evident that the hour of completion of one work of usefulness was the starting-point for another, and that he was ever seeking to interpret the mind of the Lord, and to arouse the churches to the special work of the period. To this industry we knew how largely it was owing that he was one of the most eloquent preachers of the age; how even his felicity in selecting the weightiest terms was a habit formed by the most patient carefulness; how he did everything as perfectly as possible that touched the cause of God; how he acquired a power of adaptation which could scarcely be surpassed, so that in a small congregation at a mission chapel, or a large one that represented the intelligence of the age — seated among a dozen anxious souls in a class-room, or standing before the crowds of Exeter Hall — he met the very requirement of the time; instructing, or enchaining in breathless .silence, or charming by the singular approiiriateness of what he uttered. And last, though not least, we were deeply assured by the teaching of these never-to-be-forgotten hours that that strenuous adherence to evangelical truth, which constituted the distinguishing feature of his preaching and writing, was the fruit of I his fidehty to convictions of unusual depth and clearness. It is true that departure from evangelical truth does not often spring from an act of the understanding, deliberately substituting other truths, but I from inadequate conviction — the mind having never reached, or having lost, the habit of belicAing, reverent, and profound thoughtfulness on the revelations of the Word of God Pride of heart, however, and shrinking from “the offence of the cross,” may do serious violence to the

clearest convictions. But while we saw in our honoured father I and friend a man whose heart was touched by the lost and perishing I condition of the race, and who realised the tremendous and glorious k meaning of the words sin and redemption, we learnt also how his feeUngs imperiously moxilded his pulpit addresses, and that it was 4 because he was true to his apprehensions of the appalling dangers i of sinners that he became so decided an advocate of evangeUcal orthor doxy, and pointed men so urgently and successfully to flee for “refuge * to lay hold upon the hope set before us.”

2 B

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

I am thus led to remark that, besides those more private methods of personal influence upon the life of the students, which I have spoken of, I should feel this sketch incomplete if it did not advert to the benefit which we derived from his more public services. It was our privilege to hear him as a preacher. We listened to those addresses from him to the unconverted which, for heart-searching description, solemn remonstrance, and pleading persuasion, have been rarely surpassed. We heard that voice of amazing compass and richness explaining the nature, and urging the invitations of the gospel, until the music of the word salvation hovered over the congregation like the lingering echoes of an angel’s message. “As preached by him,” writes an honoured friend, by whose side I often sat in Carr’s Lane Chapel, “the gospel was always and emphatically ’ the ministry of reconciliation; ’ and the method of that reconciliation — the Holy One who knew no sin made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him — was seldom by any hps more lucidly or persuasively taught than by his. How admii-able, too, and to us students how instructive, the manner in which he fulfilled the ministry as designed for ’ the perfecting of the saints, the edifying the body of Christ.’ If any Christian pastor ever shewed his people what maimer of persons they ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness, and did it in a way to enamour them of their calling, as well as enhghten them in the duties of it, he did; did it in the spirit of that apostle who says, ‘Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord,’ and of that other apostle who says, ‘I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth.’” Ours also was the benefit of his example as the industrious instructor of his congregation. The heart overflows with treasured remembrances as the thought of his full, critical, experimental, and tender expositions of the Divine Word comes over the s[iirit. Alike to be loved and reverenced was the manner and the teaching. How did we hsteu, with love to the instructor, to those eloquent and consecutive sermons on the doctrine of Justification by Faith; or, on other Sabbath mornings, were enabled to look into the glorious depths of St Paul’s Epistles, and to reahse at once their elevating and practical tendency.

Month after month we saw him at the Lord’s table, where, over the symbols of the Kedcemer’s dying love, his face seemed to shine with the radiance of an unutterable gratitude, and where, mth a melting pathos, he dwelt on the unsearchable grace of God in Christ, and the hopes of beUevers; or, in the sacramental address that always followed the communion, presented appeals with a view to the advancement of the piety of the church, the most faithful, stimulating, and soul-moving, I ever expect to listen to. And can we forget the influence upon us of those monthly meetings of the church, which at the time I am speaking of filled the body of the chapel, -nhere he presided -with such consummate prudence; addressed the candidates, who were almost every month led in and grouped around him, with such appropriate cautious and weighty admonitions; maintained an oversight that secured unbroken peace without compromise; and ruled with such a wise dignity as to win a respect which had not a shade of servility, and an unbounded confidence which never approached adulation? Happy were we as students enjoying the advantages of such a pastorate, and sharing the benefit of such an example! Ah, how much wiser, holier, and more zealous, might the churches have expected us to be!

It remains to be added, that Mr James’s interest in us did not cease with our removal from Birmingham. ““^Tiile of all men,” says one,* from whose letter I have before quoted, “he could well plead the pressure of multifarious duties, I never found him reluctant or tardy to aid me when I needed his counsel “WTien, at Sheffield, my wife and myseK were weeping over the loss of our only child, I well recollect how a sweet letter from him lightened our gloom; and often since have I been a debtor to his sympathy.” It is an astonishing fact, speaking volumes for the largeness of his heart, and demanding the most grateful remembrance, that very few students ever left the college who did not share to the verj’ close of his life in similar expressions of affection. Perhaps an additional testimony to his personal attentions to the welfare of one may convey an evidence of his thoughtfulness for all: on this ground, then, let me transcribe a leaf from my own experience. On completing my studies he weighed carefully the claims of conflicting spheres, and indicated the spot where the call was the most imperative; he came to give the charge at my ordination; he kindly delayed a journey to I preside at my marriage; he travelled to Reading to preach the first f sermon in the new sanctuary raised by my people for God’s worship; 1 he came afterwards to re-open the chapel, and to encourage me when I I had sought in Leeds to build up the broken walls of Zion; he wrote, i when unable to be present at the centenary of that church, a long and 1 weighty letter for the occasion; he sent me a letter of sympathy, I and afterwards knelt by me in prayer, when the hand of sickness ’ was upon me, and sought sanctifying consolation for me in what he tenderly termed those “Gethsemane walks.” But, truly, I am only one out of very many ministers who have gone forth from the college; I know that he loved other most excellent brethren quite as much, and, no doubt, he followed them with practical expressions of an interest and regard which went beyond those I have enumerated. * The Kev. S. Clarkson of Salford.

LIFE OP JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

I do not think, therefore, that mine is any partial eulogy; I am sure it is a most feeble and inadequate expression, on behalf of my once fellow-students, of the love and gratitude we owe him. And no tribute should be raised for such a purpose by any student of a college that owed so much to his prayers, benefactions, and exertions, every line of which is not written with the affectionate reverence of a son for the most beloved and honoured of fathers.

I close with the words of my much-loved friend, the Kev. William Thorp of Shrewsbury, from whose communication I have previously made a quotation.” I will enumerate, as I can hastily recall them, the principal elements of Mr James’s influence upon myself. First among these undoubtedly was his character. I never knew one in whom I saw so much of the mind that was in Christ, so much of the beauty and, I will add, grandeur of the Christ-like character, and saw it so uniformly as in Mr James. If I have since felt any ardent longings to possess it myself, I cannot forget that his example was one precious means of their becoming what they have been. The individual traits of excellence that I especially observed in him were — the realising sense which his faith gave him of eternal things, his unrelapsing spiritual-mindedness, his never-halting pursuit of the things which are before, his studied avoidance of everything bordering on the selfish or the mean, his sedulous practice of the things that are true and honest, just and pure, lovely and of good report, his tenderness that was so ready to weep with them that weep, his magnanimity that the sHmy trail of envy never defiled, his charity that might have furnished the apostle with his memorable description of this grace, his circumspection, his prudence, his never-tiring industry, his intense zeal for the conversion of the heathen, and his much more than negative, his intensely positive catholicity of spirit towards all, of every name, who hold the Head, and

who keep the commandments of Jesus The immense debt we

owe him we can never repay, but our Master and his is now paying it on our behalf.”

LETTEES TO MINISTERS AND MISSIONARIES WHO HAD
BEEN STUDENTS AT SPRING-HILL.

TO REV. D. G. WATT.

“Edgbaston, Januwiy 21, 1842.” My dear Friend and Brother, — Your two letters, one dated July and the other September 1841, both came safely to hand, and excited both my joy and gratitude on your account. I was gratified not only to hear of your safe arrival at the important scene of your future labours, and your health, but to perceive that your soul has lost none of its interest in your great -work, and I trust none of its devotedness to your Divine Master. Perhaps before I come to the contents of your epistles and to the circumstances of your station, I may for a few moments advert to my own altered condition since we parted. My beloved and estimable wife, as you had heard before your last communication was sent oflF, after a lingering illness of more than two years, has left me to be once more a solitary pilgrim on the road to immortality. Her affliction gave an opportunity for a bright display of rich grace in the manifestation of all the passive virtues of the Christian character. Never did grace, or at least rarely, shine more respleudently than in her. There was the sweetest tranquillity and Uvehest hope, resting on the solid basis of firm faith, and maintained through many months till mortality was swallowed up in life. I wish I knew how to convey to you a copy of the memorial of her that has been published since her death. As regards my.self, I have been hitherto mercifully and surprisingly sustained; and although I deeply feel, and ever shall, the irreparable loss I have sustained, and expect to go mourning all my days, yet I am not cast down, for the Lord is the lifter up of my head.

“I now enter upon a consideration of the contents of your letters. I am glad you gave up many preconceived ideas of the best mode of conducting yourself in minor matters, and left time and observation to form habits. Yon act wisely in being slow to draw conclusions. Many things which appear at first sight questionable, if not absolutely wrong, will present a different aspect after longer observation and closer inspection. A new-comer should defer much to the opinions of men who have been some years on the spot, in whose general judgment and sincere piety he has confidence. I am glad to perceive you think well of your colleagues. We have had a good opportunity of knowing Mr Buyers, and have formed a high opinion of his good sense and strong, masculine understanding. He is a clear-headed man, and I should judge of good and amiable temper. I am glad he is one of the little band with whom you are associated in that vast metropolis of Satan’s Eastern empire where you are placed. I have no need to admonish you to cultivate the best understanding with your companions, because your temper is known to be nuld and accommodating. Be ambitious for the place of Christian distinction, and that is the lowest seat and the servant of all. How have our missions been hindered by the quarrels and di-visions of our missionaries! Satan’s grand aim is to sow the seeds of discord between the labourers, and thus stop the work. “What you see deficient in piety among any of them at any time endeavour to supply rather by the force of a modest, humble example, and by your own habitual spkit, than by reproof and

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

admonition, except in flagrant cases, and even then do all in love. As to the modes of operation for carrying on the work, and the comparative advantages of preaching and education, there needs be and ought to be no comparison instituted between them. Both are parts of one great system, both are sanctified by Scripture, and both are adapted to the heathen among whom you labour. I was glad to hear Mr Buyers, both pubhcly and privately, labours to do away with an erroneous impression which his book is supposed to have produced. He strenuously advocated the importance of schools, and made it evident that he was an advocate for this mode of communicating truth, but not to the neglect of preaching. My own opinion, however, is that our Society has been in danger, if they have not actually fallen into it, of attaching too little importance to education. I would certainly lay out still more money in this department of action. The desire of the Hindoos to obtain education as such, and especially English education, ought to be laid hold of with eagerness to train them up m useful knowledge, and, as far as can be, in the knowledge of Christianity. The atheistic system of the Government schools on the subject of religion is wicked in point of religion, and foolish as a matter of policy. I am quite desirous, therefore, to cherish in your mind a strong prepossession in favour of education. It is an adage of universal application, to Hindoos as well as to Englishmen or Scotchmen, ‘Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.’ My own opinion also goes to another point, which is, that it is better to educate a few thoroughly, than many only in a haK manner. Even those children of the lower classes which you obtain, if thoroughly taught, especially in the principles of Christianity, may carry out much light into the mass among whom they ^viU one day move.

“I quite agree with you that it would be well to have one of our missionaries devoted especially to the work of superintending the formation of schools, and superintending them, provided we could spare money enough to form a number of schools sufficient to occupy his time. Such a man would have a sphere of usefulness as wide and as important as any that could be allotted to him. It should be also his department to foster the talent and piety of any of the more promising boys, and thus prepare them for acting as future preachers of the gospel I think there are two great objects ever to be kept in. view by our missionaries, and these are, to make our missions as soon as possible self-supporting, and self -propagating. It is neither accordant with Scripture nor reason to suppose that the cause is ever to be dependent on agents and resources from Christian countries. How slow at this rate must be the spread of the gospel in the world! Already the machine is in danger of stopping for want of money. Hence all who are fOXXEXIOX WITH SPEIXG-HILL COLLEGE. in the field slioiild look out for some ears of corn of native growth, which shall become seed for the country where they grew. Well may you look round on the immensity of the field and the paucity of the labourers with a feeling of dismay and despondency. But what is to be done 1 The directors are abeady exceeding their income, and the churches seem to have arrived at their maximum of subscriptions. Oh for more prayer, faith, and deadness to the world! Christians must return to simpler habits.

“The times at home are fearfully bad. Distress increasing on every hand, and men’s hearts failing them for fear. How our religious institutions are to be supported it is difficult to say.

“At Spring-HiU things are going on pretty well. Thompson, your countrjTnan, will prove a clever man. He is now supplj-ing Nile Street, Glasgow, where, it is probable, I think, he will have an invitation to

settle. ’s health bas failed, and he has given up the ministry for

trade. I do not think he would have succeeded as a preacher, and perhaps he was of the same opinion. Coles goes on thoroughly well. He will make an excellent missionary. I wish they would send him to Benares, but I suppose he must go to Madras. But I will try hard to send you Fairbrother, who answers so well to his name. He is a lovely fellow. Griffith’s destination is altered from Africa to the South Seas. Two of Micaiah Hill’s sons were received upon probation last Tuesday as missionaries. They appear to be two verj- excellent young men. Mr East, as you know, has obtained a co-pastor, a Mr Kaven, from Hadleigh, in Suffolk, a truly devoted, pious, and excellent man, who, I am persuaded, will do much good.

“At Carr’s Lane we go on much as usual. God, I trust, is with us, and giving testimony to the word of His grace — but not, that I am aware of, in any extraordinary manner. Dr Wardlaw, you probably know, intends soon to resign his pastoral charge.

“I had forgotten to caution you against over-exertion, especially during the heat of the day. It is the opinion of some, that not a few of our missionaries have injured themselves by want of caution in this <E respect. Idleness is one extreme, but rash exertion is another.

“I was sorry to read your reiterated request for a copy of the charge I delivered at your ordination, because I do not know where to find it. When I meet vdth it I will copy it, and send it by some conveyance to you. And now, may God, in His rich mercy, bless you. May our divine Lord so replenish you with His divine benediction, as to qualify you for, and help and bless you in, your momentous undertaking. — I remain, yoiu- sincere friend and brother in Christ,

“J. A. Jajies.

“Kind regards to your co-workers.”

LIFE OF JOHN AKGELL JAMES.

TO THE EEV. J. COLES, BELLARY,
ON THE DEATH OF HIS WIFE.

“Edgbaston, September i, 1850.” My dear and much-afflicted Friend and Brother, — I have been much distressed by the sad intelligence of your heavy and incalculable loss. God has indeed laid His hand upon you in this pauiful bereavement, and I cannot allow you to mourn unpitied and without this expression of my deep sympathy with you. I knew the excellence of your wife, and how truly and tenderly you loved her, and I can therefore in some measure estimate the weight of your sorrows. And then, having drunk twice of the same bitter cup, I can enter by experience into your case. Still your lot is more sorro%vf ul than mine was in consequence of your being in a strange land, and having three little children left upon your hands. Dark, dark indeed is the cloud which has thrown its shadow upon your path and your prospects. StOl you can say —

“‘I through the cloud believe Thy grace,
Secure of Thy compassion still! ’

“Yes, my good brother, there is grace behind the cloud, and -wdsdom too, though veiled in mystery. Now, more than ever, is the time for. faith and confidence. Trust in Hrm now, when you have little else to trust in. The cistern is broken — the water is spilled — but there, full in your view, amidst the broken fragments, is the glorious and infinite fountain; there is God with all His attributes — Christ with all His offices — the Spirit with all His influences — the Bible with all its promises — and heaven with all its glories. In mercies lost forget not mercies left. Surely, surely you will not allow yourself to think that all is gone, though so much is taken. Your dear wife is removed to heaven — you are following her — and, till you meet, will be still God’s honoured servant. You are still upheld, and will be, I hope, in Christian integrity, and better lose a wife, and all your children — and your own life too — than your character. Don’t puzzle yourseK about the mystery of the event. It is God that has done it, who never does’ a foolish or an unkind action. You may not see the reason, but it is God’s doing, and there is all reason in that, and with this assurance may be as well satisfied as though you saw ten thousand reasons. I hope you will not give yourself up to indulge and nourish grief. Submission and occupation will be the best balm for your wounded spirit. Christ’s service vnR be your best cordial.

“Don’t let weeping prevent sowing; and then, sowing in tears, you will reap in joy. Need I say that you are now placed in new circumstances, and are surrounded by new temptations. May God watch over you, and preserve you! Many are the trials of a young widower: watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. When I came into your circumstances, I constantly and earnestly prayed to be kept not only from sin, but from folly, and through much grace I was preserved from both. Your three babes will in due time need that you should provide them with a second mother. May you be wisely directed; but be cautious, for their sakes as well as your own. Your circumstances in India will perhaps require this sooner than would be necessary or decorous in this land, and provided you make a prudent choice, all considerate persons will not only justify you, but commend. We have been deeply interested, and since the intelligence of Mrs Cole’s death arrived, aflfected, by the beautifid picture and very touching historj’ of the orphan twins. We shall take care of them. May my little namesiike, to whom I beg my fatherly love, be a good boy — a holy man — a useful minister. And now, my dear brother, farewell till I write again. God comfort, sanctify, and bless you, and if this dark dispensation make you through grace a better missionary than ever, your glorified wife, you her bereaved husband, and her sorrow-stricken mother, will still have cause to rejoice and bless God. Poor Mrs M’Turk! oh, how I feel for her; but she bears it wonderfully, though sometimes her heart seems broken. My kind regards to Mr and Mrs Wardlaw. — Your most sympathising friend,

‘•’ J. A. jAitES.

‘■ Be thankful that your dear wife ascended in such glory to glory. What a blissful departure, hardly like dying!”

TO THE EET. AV. GUEST, LEEDS.

“Edgbastox, April 30, 1855.” My dear Mr Guest, — It was with great reluctance I decHned the offer held out to me to be present at the approaching solemnities of your centenary services; for if I could have added little to their beneficial effect, I certainly could have derived much benefit from their operation on my own mind. I am more and more deeply convinced of the importance of availing ourselves of some suitable occasion for that kind of fraternal intercourse among the ministers of the gospel, which is likely to rouse each other’s minds to the great ends of our vocation, and to stimulate them to a greater zeal in accomplishing them. I am sorrowfully impressed with the fear that the work of genuine conversion goes on but slowly among us at present, and it becomes us all most anxiously and inquisitively to search for the cause. Do we bring forward with sufficient prominence, simplicity, and earnestness, the great themes of redemption and regeneration, which are God’a own appointed means for the renovation of the heart and the salvation of the soul? I have been lately looking into that incomparable biography, the ‘Life of Doddridge,’ by Orton, and was much impressed with the following passage. ‘He saw,’ says his biographer, ’ and lamented the sad deviation of many ministers from what he thought important truths of the gospel; insisting upon them much less than they should have done, or in such a manner as if they were making concessions to an adversary rather than opening their hearts to their hearers on a favourite topic. He saw persons refining upon a plain gospel till it was almost evaporated and lost.” I hope,’ said he in a sermon before an assembly of ministers, ’ we shall never practise so dangerous a complaisance to unbelievers of the present age as to wave the gospel that we may accommodate ourselves to their taste; which, if we do, we may indeed preserve the name of virtue, but I fear we shall destroy the thing itself, — lose it in our congregations, and probably in our own hearts; for I confess it seems to me much more probable that the doctrines of natural religion alone should be blessed as the means of reformi:ig the heathen who never heard of eternity, than they should have much effect upon those who under the profession of it slight its most glorious peculiarities, as if the religion of Jesus were a mere encumbrance, which while we own it to be true, we might nevertheless forget without great danger or inconvenience. Indeed, the gospel is a great thing, or it is nothing. I am more and more convinced of the need of keeping to the good old evangelical and experimental way of preaching, and look upon most of the new-fashioned divinity, of which some persons of different extremes are so fond, as a kind of quackery which bodes iU to the health of the soul and of the church in general.’ How applicable these remarks of the saintly and scholarly Doddridge are to the present time I need not point out. Oh what a revival in our ministry might be looked for if all its members would but agree to read devoutly through within the next six months the life of this great and good man, — his sermon on the ‘Guilt and Danger of Neglecting Souls,’ — and Baxter’s ‘Keformed Pastor!’ We all need rousing up to a solemn consideration of the object of the Christian mmistry, and as solemn a review of the manner in which we are seeking to accomplish it. Never were there so many and such powerful influences counteracting the efforts of our labours, and never was there needed more power in the preacher, and more earnest prayer for the Spirit of God. We live in extraordinary times, and neither ordinary men nor ordinary efforts wUl do now.

“May God be in the midst of you at your approaching meeting, and leave you in no doubt whether the cloud of His glory resteth upon you. May a new baptism of the Spirit be granted to all assembled, that you may enter with renewed ardour and more entire self-consecration upon your work. May it be the honour of Leeds to begin a revival of religion in our churches. It must begin somewhere, and why not there 1 and at some time, why not now 1 We want more of the Spirit of Carey’s immortal admonition, ‘Expect great things, attempt great things.’ I shall think of you and pray for you, and shall be happy to catch a reflection of your light, and a radiation of your heat. If you think it worth while to remember me to the brethren, give my fraternal love to them, and say how I honour the men who are caiTying out the designs for which the Son of God expired upon Calvary, and how intensely I long for their success in bringing sinners to Him for salvation. — With kind regards to Mrs Guest, believe me affectionately yours,

“J. A. Jajies.”

TO THE EEV. W. GtTEST, LEEDS.

“Edgbaston, Novemher 28, 3855,

“My dear Sir, — I am really much concerned to hear from you so indifferent an account of your health, and intended to have told you 80 before this; but I really am so pestered with correspondence that I am often gvulty of putting by letters ‘and forgetting them which far more deserve attention than many I am compelled to answer.

“You have evidently overtaxed your strength, and have been rather a spendthrift of your energies. Don’t you often feel what a clog this poor materialism of ours is to the ethereal .spirit which animates it?

“Well, we shall be delivered by and by from the burden of the flesh and serve God without let or hindrance. Yes — but we shall not convert souls to God in heaven; this noble work is to be done on earth, and makes one long to remain on earth to do it.

“Your account of things at Leeds is as regards your congregation very delightful. Now you must rest, Your strength at present is, to sit still. In qidetness and confidence you Mill be established. You are now to stop preaching for a while to preach still better when you preach again. But do not be in haste to begin. ‘Festina lente.’

“I suppose Mr Barker sent you our regulations for the admission of students. I wish both your young friends were coming to us. But I conclude this is too late now for us to hope this. We are anxious to have a tolerably good number for our new college next year.

“I am much as usual, tolerable in health, but suffer inconvenience from my constitutional complaint. Not many conversions in the nunistry of either Mr Dale or myself. Oh, how we need the shower! May it come! Kind regards to Mrs Guest. — Yours very truly,

“J. A. James.”