The Jubilee
It is an almost universal custom among Nonconformists, when a minister has presided over the same church for fifty years, to hold special religious services in celebration of his jubilee. The aged pastor reviews his ministerial history, bears grateful testimony to the goodness and fidelity of God, and addresses to his congregation, from whom death or the infirmities of old age must soon sej)arate him, affectionate and solemn counsels. He speaks with the trembling earnestness of one who knows that he will not often speak again. The people listen with reverential love. A few gray-headed men can remember when the minister came to them in the strength and ardour of his youth, and while he recalls former times, pleasant voices long since silent seem to be heard once more, the house of God seems filled again with the forms of parents, children, friends, who are lying now under the gi’ass in the graveyard, and the old men feel that their years are nearly spent, and that death and judgment are at hatid. Younger people pause in their eager haste to get rich, or to enjoy the bright but transient pleasures of this world, and are thrilled with admiration for the enduring grandeur of a life which has been wholly consecrated to the filling up of “that which is left behind of the afl3ictions of Christ” “for his body’s sake, which is the Church,” and to making known “the exceeding riches of His grace.”
Before narrating the proceedings in honour of Mr James’s Jubilee, it is desirable to give a brief sketch of the visible results of his fifty years’ pastorate. He came, in 1805, to a church of fifty members; in September 1855, it numbered about one thousand; the congregation had increased from about one hundred and fifty to seventeen or eighteen himdi-ed. The increase in the size of the church, was not more remarkable than the development of its Christian activity and generosity, and its prolonged peace, which, through the whole fifty years, was scarcely ever threatened with interruption.
I have presided, — writes Mr James in his autobiography, — at the Autoijioelection of deacons eight or nine times, and never had any disturbance or dissatisfaction generated by the procedure.
During these years, we sent off between twenty and thirty of our members, who resided at Smethwick, to form a separate and independent church in that village, where, for forty years, we have held worship by our village preachers. And at the time I am now writing, that church has grown to considerable numbers, power, and usefulness. They have recently erected a handsome and commodious place of worship, and are in a very flourishing condition. We have done the same in one of the suburbs of oiu- town called the Lozells. There had been preaching on the premises of Mr IMillichamp many years. The congregation was continually augmenting, when Mr M., having purchased a plot of ground, generously offered a piece of it for a chapel, if our congregation would build one. The offer was accepted, and a small place erected, which has since been enlarged. Between twenty and thirty of our members were dismissed to form a church there, which has since attained to some degree of strength; but for want of a minister thoroughly adapted to the locality, it has not increased so much as under more favourable circumstances it would have done.
For many years we conducted, by some of our members, a Sunday school and preaching in the neighbourhood of Great Barr Street in this town. At the commencement of our operation, this was one of the most demoralised parts of Birmingham. Mr Der-LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
AutoWo- rington, who had been an operative, was induced to address the
graphical.
children, in the first instance, then the parents and neighbours, tQl at length he became the regular local preacher for the neighbourhood, as a town missionary supported by the Carr’s Lane Church. A small chapel was erected in Garrison Lane, which soon became too small for the congregation; and, at length, the very neat and commodious one in Palmer Street was built. Mr Derrington’s labours have been very successful, as not less than a hundred and thirty members have by him been introduced into the church in Carr’s Lane. He is supported by our church stUl. The church is not yet entirely separate and independent. Mr Derrington administers the Lord’s Supper ten times in the year, and in the months of May and October the members come to the communion of the mother church in Carr’s Lane.
We set up another preaching station and Sunday school in Bordesley Street, where we have erected a neat little chapel and convenient school-rooms, and where our able and devoted missionary, Mr Carter, is labouring with great success. Chapels were also erected by us at Yardley and Minworth, and one purchased at Great Barr, besides another small one near the Canal, and originally intended for the spiritual benefit of the coal-boatmen.
Thus our church has ever been a working one, for I have to the uttermost encouraged a spirit of activity and liberality. It has ever been carrying on home missionary operations, and has become a mother church. From us has sounded out the word of the Lord all around.
Eilitorial. To this account it is necessary to add, that a large majority of the members who formed the nucleus of the church in Francis Street, Edgbaston, were from Carr’s Lane; that Mr James, shortly before his death, laid the foundation of a new and beautiful chapel at Acock’s Green, and that a church has since been founded there, under the pastorate of the Rev. Dr AUiott, nearly all of whose original members were also from Carr’s Lane; that he warmly promoted the project for erecting a new chapel in the Moselcy Road, and that when the new church there is constituted, the members who will be dismissed to it from Carr’s Lane will know that in leaving their old associations they are fulfilling Mr James’s most earnest wishes.
The two town mission stations referred to in the autobiographical extract have lately been formed into two independent churches, with the missionaries for pastors. One of them received about one hundred and ten members from the mother church, and the other between fifty and sixty.
In his Letters on the spiritual state of our churches, which appeared in the Evangelical Magazine a few months before his death, he says: —
“When I became pastor of my church, more than fifty-three years ago, the only object of congregational benevolence and action was the Sunday school, which was then conducted in a private house, hired for the purpose. There was nothing else; literally, nothing we set our hands to. We had not then taken up even the Missionary Society. And our state was but a specimen of the inactivity of the great bulk of our churches, at least in the provinces, throughout the whole country. We may well wonder what the Christians of those days could have been thinking of. Now, look at the state of things at the opening of the year 1859. If I allude to my own church, it is not for the sake of ostentation or self -commendation; for we are not one whit better than some others. Ours is but a specimen and average of the rest. We have now an organisation for the London Missionary Society, which raises as its regular contribution nearly .£500 ;je>’ annum, besides occasional donations to meet special appeals, which, upon an average, may make up another £100 a-year. For the Colonial Missionary Society, we raise, annually, £70. For our Sunday and day schools, which comprehend nearly two thousand cliiklren, we raise £200. We support two town missionaries, at a cost of £200. Our ladies conduct a working society for orphan mission schools in the East Indies, the proceeds of which reach, on an average, £50 a-year; they sustain also a Dorcas Society for the poor of our town; a Maternal Society, of many branches, in various locaUties; and a Female Benevolent Society, for visiting the sick poor. We have a Religious Tract Society, which employs ninety distributors, and spends £50 nearly a-year in the purchase of tracts. Our Village Preachers’ Society, which employs twelve or fourteen lay agents, costs us scarcely anything. We raise £40 annually for the Coimty Association. We have a Young Men’s Brotherly Society, for general and religious improvement, with a hbrary of two thousand volumes.
LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
“We have also night schools for young men and women, at a small cost, and Bible classes for other young men and women. In addition to all this, we raise £100 per annum for Spring- HiU College.
“I again say that this is but an average of congregational exertion and liberality in this day of general activity. Yea, many churches of our own and other denominations perhaps greatly excel us. And, after all, we none of us come up to our resources, our opportunities, or our obligations. We all could do more, ought to do more, must do more. Still, compare this with what my congregation did with, its single object, the Sunday school fifty-three years ago.
“In addition to this, there are, in all our congregations, many and liberal subscribers to our public societies, such as the Bible Society, the Society for the Conversion of the Jews, and all other objects of Christian zeal and benevolence. What, I ask, does this manifest and prove 1”
Of the affection with which Mr James was regarded by the members of his church and congregation, their reverence for his character, their high estimate of the power and worth of his ministry, many proofs have already been given in this volume. He regarded them with reciprocal love. It was not because he was never invited to leave Birmingham that he remained there to the end of his days. Once, indeed, he seemed on the point of removing. In 1826, his friend Mr Wilson, who, ten years before, had tried in vain to induce him to become the pastor of Paddington Chapel, earnestly pressed him to become the first minister of Craven. The chapel was as large as Carr’s Lane, and it was certain that his preaching would at once attract a crowded congregation. Just at that time he was rather vexed by what he thought the indifference of his own peoyle to the heavy debt incurred in the erection of their new place of worship, and by the extent to which they permitted him to share their pecuniary responsibilities. Mr Wilson’s urgency, and the noble prospects of usefulness at Craven, were, however, overborne by the strength of his aSection for his old flock. In declining this invitation he made a large pecuniary sacrifice. His income at that time from Carr’s Lane was £300 per annum; he was offered £700 at Craven, with the prospect of £1000. Whether he received a formal invitation to succeed Rowland Hill at Surrey Chapel, I have not been able to discover, but proposals were certainly made to him, which, if encouraged, would have led to this; and he once informed me that, on the death of Dr M’All, the question was put to him whether it would be possible to induce him to remove to Manchester. Perhaps some may think that, on the whole, he might have effected more good, if, after creating a large congregation in Birmingham, he had left the work of sustaining it to some man endowed with a less brilliant eloquence, and gone elsewhere to inspira and strengthen some feeble and struggling church. Here, in Bii’mingham, it cannot be expected that such opinions should win many suffrages. In this town, he gradually became invested with a power to which even his eloquence was feebleness. The stainless reputation, and incessant labours of fifty years, won for him a homage, and gave him a moral and spiiitual influence in Birmingham, which the brightest genius might have coveted in vain.
At the close of the first forty years of his ministry, he preached a sermon on the text, “For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the work of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through the great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.” The sermon, in which he gave a brief history of his pastorate, and enforced the practical lessons suggested by the solemn review, was printed in the form of an address, and entitled “Grateful Recollections.”
Ten more years of ministerial happiness and prosperity passed by, and then came the celebration of his Jubilee. The excitement and enthusiasm of his people about this event made him troubled and anxious. Writing to myself about a month or five weeks before the jubilee services were held, he says, “I am really becoming quite nervous about the whole aSair, and feel that my kind and generous and noble-hearted people have gone too far in the splendour of their gifts. I am afraid there is too much of glorying in man. The subject has a little entangled my imagination and my conscience; I find it difficult to shake it off when I go to bed, and it in some measure disturbs my sleep. This I know is my weakness, but I cannot help it. I pray against it, I struggle against it, but it comes back upon me.”
About the “gifts,” the “splendour” of which disturbed him,
LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
there was much difficulty. After many impracticable propositions had been suggested, discussed, and abandoned, it was finally resolved that the testimonial should consist of a copy of Bagsters’ Comprehensive Bible, Eoberts’ “Illustrations of the Holy Land,” a silver vase, and an oak cabinet.
The balance of the Jubilee Fund, amounting to upwards of £500, it was determined to place at Mr James’s disposal. On the second Sunday of September 1805, he had preached his first sermon as the settled minister of Carr’s Lane congregation, and his Jubilee sermon was preached on the morning of the second Sunday of September 1855. The sermon has already appeared in the “Collected Works,”* and is characterised by great pathos and vigour. In the evening a sermon was preached by his colleague. On the Monday evening a discourse was delivered to the children of the schools and of the congregation; after the sermon the children of the congregation passed in files before the desk, and received from Mr James’s own hand a little book, written for the occasion. On Tuesday morning he laid the foundation stone of the Congregational Church in Francis Street, Edgbaston. In the evening a meeting for prayer and thanksgiving was held at Carr’s Lane. On Wednesday morning Dr Bennett preached in the same place, to a large congregation, on 2 Pet. i. 12-15. After the sermon, congratulatory addresses and letters were read from twelve of the ministers of New York, from Dr Bedford of Worcester, from the church assembling in Ebenezer Chapel, Birmingham, from the Rev. R. A. Vaughan, B.A., and from the Carr’s Lane Brotherly Society. In the evening a public meeting was held in the Town Hall, for the presentation of the testimonial. The magnificent building was filled in every part, and hundreds who were anxious to be present were unable to obtain tickets. Ministers of every evangelical denomination, among whom were many of the former Spring-Hill students, settled in distant parts of the country, filled a large portion of the platform. After devotional exercises, the chairman, W. Beaumont, Esq., one of the deacons of the church, made an admirable introductory speech.
Vol. iii.
The following letter was then read from the Rector of St Martin’s: —
“Edinburgh, September 10, 1855. “My dear Sie, — It is not -without much hesitation that I venture to obtrude even a few hues upon you, expressive of my sincere regret that absence from Birmingham will deprive me of the delight of being present in some nook of the Town Hall on Wednesday evening, at the Jubilee meeting of our beloved friend and brother, Mr James. His own flock will not, I trust, deem a Church of England minister obtrusive in desiring to sj-mpathise in their joyous gratitude to the great Head of the Church, for raising up and preserving to them such a man as John Angell James, not more honoured among his own denomination of the Church of Christ than by multitudes of the -n-ise and good of every name and land. On such an occasion, we behold not the Dissenter or the Churchman — but the man of God — the faithful and honoured servant of Christ — claiming our tribute of grateful love for this, not the least of his many uivaluable services, that, by the consistent tone of his life, no less than by the powerful advocacy of his lips and of his pen, he has in the town of Birmingham, drawn so close the bonds of Christian brotherhood, and recognised in our common union vdth. the Lord Jesus Christ a “tie which shall bind us together in bhssful and endless fellowship, when our divisions and their causes shall be forgotten for ever. It is my earnest hope and prayer, that your week’s proceedings may be sanctified and sweetened by the presence and blessing of our God and Saviour; and that His honour may be promoted in the honour given, for His sake, to my beloved friend. His servant. — Believe me, my dear sir, very sincerely yours in Christian brotherhood,
“J. C. Miller.
“John Keep, Esq.”
Dr Urwick of Dublin, who was once a member of Carr’s Lane, proposed, and the Rev. J. B. Marsden, incumbent of St Peter’s, the historian of the Earlier and Later Puritans, supported the first “sentiment,” which read thus: —
““We are deeply convinced that the spiritual strength and success of whatever human agency may be employed in the service of Christ and the Church, are wholly derived from the Spirit of God; and while we heartily congratulate the Rev. J. A. James on having completed the Jubilee of his pastorate, and rejoice with him in the results which have followed his work, and in the love and confidence which thousands of Chiistian people in this couutrj’ and in different parts of the world
LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
entertain for liira, we desire to give special emphasis and prominence to the expression of our gratitude to God for having made him in earlylife a Christian and a Christian minister; for having through so manyyears protected the purity of his character, and sustained the vigour of his ministerial labours; — and to God -would -we most solemnly and devoutly ascribe all the glory of the success with which these labours have been crowned.”
Then followed addresses and resolutions from the gi’eat societies which Mr James had supported, and from various communities of Christian people both in England and America, — from the English Religious Tract Society,* the London Missionary Society, from Presbyterian Clergymen in Philadelphia and its vicinity, from the Wesleyan Methodist Ministers and Circuit Stewards of the Birmingham District, from the Ministers and Officers of the Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, from the Baptist Ministers in Birmingham, from the Board of Education of Spring-Hill College, from the Students of Spring-Hill, from the Warwickshire Association of Ministers and Churches, and from the Carr’s Lane Church and Congregation.
The Chairman then presented to Mr James the testimonial which was intended to form the enduring memorial of the affection of his people, expressing the hope that to these gifts his eye and heart would turn in seasons when he might need a visible token of sympathy, and that they might ultimately descend as an heirloom to his posterity.
Agitated by emotions which he could with difficulty control, and welcomed by the loud and repeated cheers of the immense assembly, Mr James then said —
“My deak Sir, — I must be more or less than human if, on the present occasion, I were not oppressed and almost overwhelmed by emotion. I wish it were possible for me with a calmer mind, though not with a colder heart, to survey the scene by which I am at this moment surrounded. My feeUngs, I can assure you, are not altogether those of unmixed delight. My consciousness of utter unworthiness of this demonstration of respect and affection is so intense, and my fears so great that the glory which belongs only to God should be given to
* The address from the American Tract Society arrived too late to be read at the meeting.
THE JUBILEE.
one of His dependent creatures, that these considerations shed a few drops of corrective and salutary bittex-ness into the full and otherwise intoxicating cup of delight which is now presented to me. With unutterable astonishment at the honours which are now heaped upon me, I blush over them; and that, from a conviction of their excess above all I desire or deserve; and am truly ashamed to receive them. True it is, that for fifty years I have endeavoured, by God’s help, to serve my flock in the oversight of their spiritual interests, and have not ’ shunned to declare the whole counsel of God,’ so that I may perhaps say, ‘I am clear from the blood of all.’ True it is, that I cannot doubt I have, by God’s grace, promoted their interests for both worlds; and no less true is it, that I have also attempted to be of some service to the cause of religion and humanity at large. The greatest modesty and the profoundest humility cannot, need not, deprive me of this conviction, nor blind my eyes to the evidence of some degree of usefulness; yet I feel that were I all in myself, and had done all for others which my friends in looking at me through the magnifying power of their affection have been too ready to suppose, yea, had I a thousand times exceeded all this, I should still possess an irresistible persuasion, that, with thankfidness for what had been accomplished, there should be, as I am sure there is, a feeling of deep self-abasement that I had not done more, and had not done it better. In reference to those services to which the kind, beautiful, and affectionate address just read so tenderly alludes, I would adopt the language of the apostle, and say, ‘Not I, but the grace of God by me.’ If in any degree I shine, and with any radiance, it is by reflection from the Great Sun of Righteousness, of which I am but an humble satellite. With these convictions, and jealous for the honour of Him who will not give His glory to another, I am tremblingly anxious that my flock should, as far as possible, forget the servant, and think chiefly of the Master. In the full blaze of His glory would I be thankfully and efi”ectuaUy lost sight of, as much as an insect when floating upon the boundless ocean of the sun’s meridian splendour. Let all that has been done, or that you imagine has been done, by my instrumentality, during the fifty years I have been with you, lead you to honour Christ as the sole Agent and Author of all. Then I will joy and rejoice with you all; but if it lead you to honour only me, the highest distinctions you could confer upon me, will be to me for a grief, a shame, and a lamentation; and while rejoicing multitudes arc uttering their jubilant voices, I shall hang my harp upon the willow, and mourn apart. Of the chorus of joy this evening, be this the theme, — and I will be the leader, and strike the highest and the loudest note of praise — ‘Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thee give glory.’
LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
“Should any person deem the proceedings of this evening a departure from the simplicity that is in Christ, — and I will confess I am not altogether free from such an apprehension, — my friends will, at least, bear me witness, that it was their doing, — the doing of their fervent and irrepressible regard, and not my own. I never expected nor desired such notoriety; it has come to me without being sought by me. I should, perhaps, on some accounts, have preferred a less elaborate mode of celebrating the event which has brought us together this evening; but I have sacrificed my own wishes to what I knew to be the sincerity, the ardour, and intensity of others; and when strong affection seeks for the most emphatic expression, it must be left to itself to determine in what form it will embody its utterance; and provided that no principle of Christianity be violated and no law of religion transgressed, it must not be judged by a test too rigid, nor condemned with a censure too severe. If I have done wrong in accepting such honours and consenting to such publicity, it is an error which, as I have never committed before, I never shall again, unless I live with you to celebrate my centenary. I am solicitous that the services of this evening should be considered as a public testimony, borne to religion itself, rather than as a wreath around the brow of one of its advocates; a tribute offered in the place of public concourse to the wisdom that cometh from above, rather than to one of its teachers. Taking other grounds — if these honours should, as they do, proclaim that, by earnestness on the one part, and kindness and forbearance on the other, it is possible for a pastor and his flock to live together in undisturbed harmony and affection for half a century, — if they should shew that gratitude still lives in this cold and selfish world, and this should stimulate to those offices of love which are calculated to excite it, and should prove that, notwithstanding the fickleness of humanity and its morbid sensitiveness, peace and good-will may be maintained with the greatest amoimt of religious freedom, — if this public expression of regard to an aged minister should teach his younger brethren that, provided they are diligent and faithful, they will not, when they are old, be cast off or forsaken either by God or man, — they will have a beneficial use, far beyond that which is more immediately contemplated, and serve a valuable purpose, both for the churches of Christ and the world at large.
“I now turn my attention to the splendid gifts in which my beloved flock have embodied and expressed their affection, and of which you, sir, in your kind address, and in so graceful a manner, have begged my acceptance in their name and on their behalf; and which I now publicly, humbly, and thankfully accept — accept, not, indeed, as rewards of ministerial labour, but merely as tokens of affectionate respect You, my friends, have too high an idea of the rewards due to the services of a Chiistian pastor to suppose, for a moment, that he can find an adequate or appropriate reward in such things as these, however precious or however costly they may be. For this you refer me, even as I look myself, to the more august scene, when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, and when, if I have been found faithful, I shall receive, not silver and gold, but a crown of glory that fadeth not away. If there be one of these materialities to which a fastidious taste is likely to object, it is the splendid vase which now glitters before your eyes, and which, perhaps, does seem a little more in keeping with civic than with ecclesiastical distinction. But here affection has displayed its ingenuity as well as its liberaUty, for it has so constructed the article as to contain, according to your representation, sir, in its several compartments, a pictorial compend of my ministerial history, even to a representation of the very desk upon which I have -mitten all my sermons and all my books. There is another item of these costly presents on which I must remark, — I refer to the sum of money placed at my disposal. Ten years ago, you, my generous and large-hearted flock, when I had spent forty years among you, marked that era by raising £500 to found a scholarship in Spring-Hill College, to bear my name in per^etuity; and now you have raised nearly double that sum. Part of this will go, as you have stated, to defray the expense connected with this Jubilee, and incurred by these presents, and the remainder you have now placed in my own hands, to do with it as I may determine. Had Providence been less bountiful to me than it has, I should have felt justified in appropriating this sum to my own personal use; as it is, however, every farthing of it will be appropriated — with the addition of a thank-offering of my own for the mercy of this season — to the use and benefit, in some permanent way, of my brethren in the ministry. Valuable as these gifts are, they are less precious than the affection from whence they spring. Silver and gold can neither be substitutes for love, nor can they adequately express it. In looking on these beautifid articles, it will ever be a consolation to my mind to consider that, at the expiration of my fifty years’ residence among my friends, I was not deemed less worthy of their respect and regard than I was at the commencement of this term.
“And now, having first of all given thanks to Him ’ from whom Cometh every good and perfect gift,’ and by whose grace ‘I am what I am,’ I would attempt to express my gratitude to you, not only for these presents, and the affectionate address by which they have been accompanied, — not only for all the trouble the committee have taken to render this season and scene in eveiy way gratifying to my feelings, — but for fifty years of such unequivocal instances of respectful regard as
LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
leave me now at a loss for words to express my sense of obligation. I will, therefore, simply say, in language uttered on a former occasion, but now repeated with a deeper emphasis — Your fathers bore with the inexperience, if not with the indiscretions, of my youth; you and your children are bearing with equal patience the infirmities of my age. I thank you for all your kindness; injuries I have received none.
“The expression of my gratitude cannot, however, be confined on this occasion to the circle of my own congregation. To those generous friends in this town belonging to other congregations, and even to other denominations, who have so spontaneously and so hberaUy come forward to do me honour, I thus pubUcly make my respectful acknowledgments; especially to the rector of St Martin’s, for his kind and cathoHc letter of congratulation, addressed, first of all, to the committee, and now to this meeting; and also to my esteemed friend and co-secretary in the Bible Society, the Rev. J. B. Marsden, for the favour of his presence, and the aff’ectionate and generous sentiments to which he has given utterance this evening; who, if his penetrating glance and just discrimination can find something, both in the Earlier and Later Puritans, to censure — as he certainly may — has also found much to admire and to praise, and has with elegance and candour exhibited, on the page of his beautiful history, with his impartial pen, their virtues as AveU as their faults, and who is present this evening, by his friendship to honour one of their descendants. This, I hope, will be received as evidence that, while as consistent men — one a Churchman and the other a Dissenter — we have held with, firmness our principles, we have in each case made charity to triumph over bigotry. Oh, what are the points that separate the EvangeHcal Churchman from the Evangehcal Nonconformist compared with the great truths which unite them — but, as the municipal and parochial regulations which distinguish town from town, and city from city, compared with the glorious British Constitution, which gathers them all up into the fellowship of rights, privileges, and common loyalty and patriotism, of a nationality which is one and indivisible!
“To the various public bodies who have done me such unmerited honour, both here and elsewhere, I return my best thanks for their addresses of congratulation, whose kind fellowship with me and my friends in the joys of this season fills me with profound astonishment that they should have deemed me worthy of such notice. Most of all has my surprise been excited by those addresses which have come from the United States of America — a proof that there is a bond between Christians which oceans cannot separate, nor national distinctions weaken. So far as the matter goes this evening, it is deUghtful to see the British Lion and the American Eagle reposing in fellowship beneath the cross, and both animated by the dove-like spirit of Him that died upon it. O my brother Patton, pardon me if I ask, not with a frols-a upon you — for I know the Abolition principles which fiU and warm your heart and actuate your life — but with a sigh and blush for your country — when shall the fellowship of the two countries be complete by the removal of the last fetter from the last slave, and America be in reality what she is by profession — the land of freedom as well as the land of temperance?
“On some accounts I feel it to be an addition to the honour of this occasion, that it is conferred upon me in this magnificent hall of ci-ic and popular convocation; as it proves that, through God’s grace, I am not myself ashamed, nor deemed by others unworthy, to lift my head among my fellow-townsmen. During my fifty years’ residence in this town, I hope I have been enabled so to conduct myself as to secure the character of a peaceful citizen, and thus to obtain a place among its useful inhabitants.
“Further, the joy of this Jubilee season is heightened by its being celebrated in association with my much-esteemed colleague. By the mercy of God, he has dissipated the clouds which were gathering round my setting sun, and gives a bright star to the evening of my Ufa. May his ministry be more lengthened and useful than my own, and his Jubilee as happy!
“And now, in conclusion, I would turn for a moment my attention and yours from this interesting scene and occasion to one infinitely more august, — when the Chief Shepherd shall appear to call the nations to His bar, and deal -with pastors and their flocks, ours among the rest. In that awful, yet glorious day, the meanest indi’idual in this vast assembly, though now lost amid the multitudes by whom he is surrounded, shall, if he receive the grace of God which bringeth salvation, and teaches men to live a sober, righteous, and godly Kfe, be lifted from his obscurity, elevated to the throne of Christ, and be covered with His glory, and shall receive from the hand of his Divine Lord tokens of affection and marks of distinction, compared with which those that have been conferred upon me this evening are not worth a wish or a thought. Then, when kings and priests, warriors and statesmen, philosophers and scholars, poets and orators, that have not believed God nor honoured Christ, shall be passed by in silent contempt, or receive only the language of condemnation, shall this humble follower of the Lamb hear the Judge sajing to him, before assembled worlds, — ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’”
Another “sentiment,” expressing the kindly feeling of the church to the junior pastor, having been proposed, supported, and responded to, a vote of thanks to the chairman closed the business of the evening. The doxology was sung, and the Kev. J. Gawthorne of Derby pronounced the benediction.
These Jubilee services had a moral significance and grandeur which produced a profound impression on all who took part in them; and out of them sprang an institution which the English CongregationaUsts greatly needed. Mr James had long thought of the desirableness of establishing a general fund which should enable aged or infirm ministers who had no income except that which they derived from their congregations to retire from their work: and he determined to make the cheque of £500 presented to him in the Town Hall the nucleus of a “Pastor’s Retiring Fund,” should it aypear probable that the churches of the denomination were inclined to adopt the scheme. The balance of the Jubilee Fund afterwards somewhat increased, and from his own pocket he made it up to £1000. Great difiiculties had to be overcome in divising a safe and equitable plan for efiecting the object. That ultimately agreed upon is thus described in a paper read by Dr Ferguson at the autumnal meeting of the Union, held at Blackburn in 1860 : —
“It is provided that only duly accredited pastors of the Congregational or Independent denomination in England, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man should be eligible to participate in the benefits of the fund; should be not less than sixty years of age; should have been engaged in the pastoral work of the ministry for not fewer than twenty-five years, without following any trade or profession, except that of a schoolmaster; should be of irreproachable moral character; and whose views of Christian doctrine and practice are in consonance with the ‘Declaration of Faith, Church Order, and DiscipUne,’ adopted on May 10, 1833, at a general meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales; that such pastors as have been annual subscribers, or have availed themselves of life assurance for the benefit of their famifies, or whose churches may have contributed, by annual collection or otherwise, to the fund, should, other things being equal, have the priority of claim; that no minister should be entitled to a grant whose entire income from all other sources should exceed £100 per annum; that, in making a grant, due regard should be had to the efforts that the church from which the pastor retires may make to fociUtate his resignation; that in detennining the amount of grant to a retiring pastor, consideration should be given to his previous average stipend, as well as to family claims, age, and infii-mity, nor yet overlooking the length and efficiency of his ministerial service; that the grant should in no instance exceed the sum of £50 per annimi, and should be regarded in the light of annuity rather than an annual grant, and be continued for life; that the property should be vested in four trustees, and the affairs of the Association be conducted by thirty-six managers, one-third of whom should reside in London, and two-thirds in the country, one-half of each being laymen, and the other half ministers; that the managers should be members of Congregational churches; and that at an annual general meeting of the members of the Association they should present a statement of their proceedings, with the audited accounts of the year.”
The deed of settlement was signed during the session of the Union, by-laws were adopted, treasurer and secretary appointed, and it was announced that the fund collected, of course, by voluntary contributions, had already nearly reached £15,000.
It is a pleasant thought, that while the scholarship at Spring-Hill College, founded to commemorate the close of the first forty years of Mr James’ pastorate, will afford education and maintenance through all coming years to an unbroken line of students for the Christian ministry, the “Retiring Fund,” originated by the testimonial which he received from his people at the celebration of his JubUee, will afford comfort and peace to many aged pastors who have spent their strength in Christ’s service, “taldng no thought for the morrow,” seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and believing that all other things should be added to them.
LETTERS EEFERRIXG TO THE JUBILEE.
TO«HE EEV. J. C. MILLER, M.A.
“Malvebn, August 22, 1855.
“My dear Mr Miller, — A day or two before I left home for this place, I called at the rectory, when, to my regret, I found you had left Birmingham for Scotland that morning.
“The object of my call was to thank you for the truly kind, Chi-ia-LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
tian, and catholic manner in wMcli you had expressed yourself to my friends in reference to their intended celebration of my Jubilee. It was only one more act of generous and magnanimous friendship added to the many that preceded it, though it exceeded them all. Apart from the reference it bore towards myself, though, of course, I could not be insensible to that, it delighted me as a beautiful exhibition of that charity which is the very soul of our Divine Christianity. In a world yet, unhappily for the credit of our common faith, so much under the mean and degrading tyranny of a low and narrow sectarianism, it is delightful to witness these triumphs of holy love, and thus to anticipate the scenes and the feelings of that blessed world where the divisions of the Church and the distinctions of party will be known no more.
“I can truly say, I glorify God in you. I have watched your course ever since you have been in Birmingham, with admiration and pleasure, not only on account of the extensive circle of ministerial usefulness of which the Divine Head of the Church has made St Martin’s Church and its rector the centre, and which you have obtained grace to occupy with such efficiency, but equally on account of the example you have given of consistency as a clergyman of the Church of England, and catholicity as a minister of the universal Church. I know some of the perylexities you have had to encounter, and the difficulties which have beset your path; and I equally know the firmness, guided by prudence, with which you have been enabled to persevere in your course of Christian Liberality. Your eagle flight you did not allow to be arrested or turned aside by the pecking and twittering of birds of feebler vision and less daring pinions. You know, in some degree, but not in all, the place you fill in the minds and hearts of the evangelical Nonconformists of our town. I believe, that, from many of their hearts, closets, and family altars, supplications are continually going up to the fountain of light and love on your behalf. They know how much of the good feeling towards us of many of your brethren is owing to you. Do not therefore, my dear sir, be discouraged if now and then you are called to suffer under a want of sympathy in your noblest feelings from some of your brethren in the Church of England. Depend upon it, when we meet our Master, we shall have no rebuke for having shewn too much love to the weakest of His servants. How many practical mistakes would be corrected if we kept that interview perpetually before us, and were to judge of things more as we may anticipate we shall judge of them then! Long, very long may God continue you in Birmingham, for a still greater blessing to that important town; and when the hand that pens these few lines shall have lost the little cunning it ever had, may your bow abide in strength, and the arms of your hands be made strong by the mighty God of Jacob. I hope you are laying in a good stock of health for home duties, by the invigorating breezes of the mountains and lakes, which / shall never see again.
“If it be not troubling you, and wearing out your patience by this long scrawl, I will refer, for one moment, to the subject which has led to this letter, — I mean my Jubilee, to which you have so generously alluded. I am ashamed and grieved at the notoriety which my friends have given, and are still gi%’ing, to this event. It is, I assure you, no simulated modesty, no affected humility which compels me to say, I blush over my own fame — shall I call it 1 — from an entire consciousness how little I deserve it; and I now wish I had forbidden all this pubUcitj’. Believe me when I say it is not mt, doing; and could I have foreseen what my friends intended to do, and all the real concern it now produces, I should have passed over the year almost in silence. To me it seems as if a fast were more suitable than a festival, because of the many and great imperfections which the review of fifty years brmgs out upon my afflicted sight.
Pardon this intrusion, and with kind respects to Mrs ^tliUer, believe me, my dear sir, yours faithfully,
“J. A. James.”
TO THE EEV. DR MOEISON.
‘• Edqbaston, September 25, 1855.
“Alany, many thanks to you, my dear, kind friend, for your solicitude and inquiries about your present correspondent, and the deep interest you have taken in those events and scenes of his history which have lately occurred.
“I believe many will be astonished, and some half offended, at the pubhcity and notoriety which have been given to the fact of a minister of Jesus Christ having completed fifty years of his life and labours. And I am sure none will be more astonished than that poor, unworthy labourer himself. A tenth part, yea, and a much smaller fraction, of what has been done never approached the horizon of my imagination in the most anticipative moods of my mind. And when I discoveted what my friends intended for me, I was really in distress. True, I could have resisted it, and refused the expressions of their kindness; but I should have given pain to those to whom, as far as I can influence their feelings, I owe nothing but pleasure. I have all along been sensitive and jealous for the honour of God, and was alarmed and afraid lest the Master should be robbed of His glory, and the servant invested with the sinful spoils. At one time I was sinking into a nervous di-ead and apprehension of this kind. God mercifully released me, and under the hope that my people would glorify God in me, I was sustained amidst scenes of excitement enough to crush me to the
LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
eartL If I know my own heart, and am not grossly and grievously deceived, whatever may be the case with others who have looked on, and who may be disposed to exalt me above measure, as regards myself I am deeply humbled by all this, and was never lower in my ovfn estimation than I am at this moment.
“I am grateful to God for the measure of strength He has granted to me. I praise His holy name hourly for His goodness, and desire to devote the remainder of my days ldth more unreserved consecration to His service.
“All this about my poor unworthy self. Well, I come now to express my tenderest sympathy with you under these attacks of your disease. You are a perfect wonder to me. God is magnifying His power both in your body and mind, in enabling you to work on amidst so much disease. Pray, did you, or some one else, write that admirable critique on [ 1 ] in the A’van.? Whoever did it has my thanks for its discrimination and fidelity.
“And now may the good Lord bless you and hold you up. My love to your wife and the young — disciples shall I call them 1 Ask them from me if they love Christ. — Yours affectionately,
“J. A, jAilES.”