thren, watched over them in love, and was concerned for their prosperity; while, being sound in the faith, and holding it in a pure conscience, he was attached to its holy principles, and equally averse to Arminian legality and Antinomian licentiousness. In a word, he so discharged the duties of this office as to obtain a good degree of esteem and genuine love in the church, and boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. During the two last years of his life, though seldom able, through bodily weakness, to attend public worship, yet his soul was in the service, his memory and all his mental faculties as lively, and his concern for the prosperity of that church, and the spread of the gospel, as ardent as ever. Much of his time was spent in prayer to God. Deeply sensible that creatures, who have sinned, must be wholly indebted to the grace of God for salvation; he often declared that all his hope was founded on Christ; that he had no dependence on any thing he had done, had no worthiness in himself, and that the Lord and Saviour was his righteousness before. God. He requested me, if I survived, to speak at his grave, but to say nothing of him, or of his works; for his hopes of salvation, and entrance into heaven, were built on the same foundation as those of the penitent thief, and Paul, who was the chief of sinners. Though twenty-five miles distant, I visited him, for the last time, on the day on which he died. I found him very weak, hardly able to speak so as to be understood. He said he was comfortable, and hoped his Lord and Master would soon come and take him to himself; so saying, he fell into a soft sleep. This was late in the afternoon. In the evening, having been taken out of bed, he gave orders, that as soon as he was put again to bed, I might be sent for, to pray with him. Being only in the next house, I was soon there. He was breathing softly. I knelt down with his wife and children present, and prayed for them all, and particularly for support and peaceful dismission, &c. During, or before, the conclusion, it was discovered that he ceased to breathe, and that his immortal spirit had returned to God, who gave it. The curtain withdrawn, the sight of his position powerfully revived, in my mind, the words of Dr. Watts on the death of Moses; "Softly his fainting head he lay "Upon his Maker's breast; Mr. Angas has left an aged widow and four married daughters. He was interred at Broomhaugh, in his own family burying-ground, on the 24th of August, and his funeral sermon, preached at Hincly, on the 17th of September, from Psal. xviii. 46; a text which had been a great support to his mind under domestic bereavements; having buried two wives and four children. intruded themselves into the ministry, and preached in meeting-houses, as well as in the FARTHER ENDEAVOURS streets or in the fields. Besides, FOR THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN LONDON. LETTER II. TO A YOUNG MINISTER. (Continued from page 447.) MY DEAR SIR, I FEEL satisfied that you, and many of your brethren, are as desirous as I can possibly be, to use every practicable means for diffusing evangelical knowledge through the metropolis. You are not to consider my address as at all implying disrespect to any, except those, who are losing their opportunities for extensive usefulness, either through their negligence, or unconcern for the welfare of the souls of men. I shall take the liberty, however, to suggest a few of the thoughts which have exercised my own mind, for your serious consideration. if the practice be in itself right, let men of talent and character engage in it, and rescue it from the obloquy under which it may be supposed to have fallen. Nor do I know that it can be said, that it is contrary to law. Certainly, it is not contrary to the law of God; and if any law of our country are against it, the difficulty may be easily removed by licensing the particular spots, on which the preacher intends to take his stand. But should preaching in the field, or in the street, be viewed as too formidable an attempt, let me ask 2dly, Could not much be done by preaching in private houses? Many parts of the city are nearly destitute of places of worship; and not a few of them are inhabited by people chiefly, if not wholly, of the lowest and most degraded classes of society. Now, could not houses 1. Is the practice of out-door be procured, and regularly li preaching either irrational or im- censed, in such parts of the practicable? It certainly boasts city? In these you may preach of high antiquity, of very supe- on Lord's day evenings, or at rior sanctions, even the prac- such other times as you may have tice of Christ and his apostles; opportunity, without any hardand has, in modern times, been ship, or exciting any unpleasant attended with happy effects. alarm. In different parts of Nor do I see any substantial the kingdom, this has been objection against its being still found not only practicable, but resorted to. Its having been happily successful. Numbers adopted by men of contemp-have come to hear a sermon in tible abilities, or of doubtful a private house, who had never principles, is no more an objec- frequented, or even entered, a tion to it, than it is to preach- place of worship; but who, by ing under any other circum-means of what they have heard stances. Men of such a de- there, have undergone a very scription have unquestionably happy change, and become, in future, some of the most devout | a word, to demolish the strongand constant attendants on the hold of Satan in his heart. It stated worship of God. Is is not like the preaching of there any reason why this measure cannot be adopted in the metropolis? But, should even this, upon trial, be found either impracticable or ineffectual, let me farther ask Pearce, or of Whitfield, or of Wesley, or of Romaine, or of Grimshaw, or of the puritans, or of the reformers, or, I may add, of Christ and his apostles. But, my dear Sir, make a point of conscience to conform your preaching to the model of such illustrious men as these, who were the instruments of such happy revivals in their days, and the means of the salvation of such numbers of immortal souls. I say nothing of more private methods of instruction, such as personal converse, private admonition, reproof, and direction, which, I am persuaded, no one, who wishes to approve himself as a faithful minister of Christ, will venture to neglect. It is high time for you, my dear Sir, as well as for all your coadjutors, to attempt somewhat more than has been hitherto attempted, to rescue from perdition the multitudes of sinners that are rushing to destruction on all sides of you. To this great business you will, I trust, address yourself with holy zeal and stedfast perseverance, endeavouring to find out the most suitable methods, determined to leave no means untried; and earnestly beseeching Him, to whom nothing is impossible, to open 3dly, Can nothing more be done, without materially stepping out of the regular course that your predecessors have pursued? Cannot you preach a lecture, on Lord's day evenings, at your own place of worship, adapting your discourse particularly to the ignorant, the poor, and the vicious, letting it be publicly known that this is your intention? Can you not, in the general course of your ministerial labours, without any just cause of of fence to the polite and more cultivated part of your auditory, adopt a more plain, a more pointed, a more awakening mode of address? I must honestly confess, that the strain of preaching at present growing into use, and by many highly applauded, is not altogether such as may be expected to be productive of any generally important effect. Itis, in my apprehensions, too pointless, too polished, too much wrapped up in figurative language; it has too little of the horrors of sin, of the torments of hell, of the joys of heaven, and, which is of still more serious conse-paths of usefulness to you, and quence, too little of the glories to prosper you in pursuing of Christ. It is too feeble to them.-Will you, my dear Sir, awaken the secure, to convince bear with me while I venture, the sinner of his guilt and his once more, to intreat you→ danger, to bring him to a thorough acquiescence with the gospel method of salvation; in 4thly, Endeavour to discover and resist the temptations that are supposed to assault a Lon don minister.-It has not un- | for greater stimulus to exertion appears to me to exist in London, than can exist in any other part of the kingdom, or perhaps of the world. Is it because their diligence and zeal suffer a decline, upon their change of situation? This I cannot admit, without passing a censure on them, which I am unwilling to allow. Is it be cause, by associating with persons of superior rank, they insensibly acquire habits of effeminacy, which destroy their energy, and betray them into a strain of preaching, of too refined a cast for general useful frequently been remarked, that some ministers, who have been acceptable and useful in country situations, have, upon their removal to London, in a course of time, fallen under neglect, and their usefulness seemed to have come almost to an end. If this remark had been made by a person in the country, or by only such persons in the city as may, from their prevailing dispositions, be accustomed to indulge in the practice of degradation and censure, little credit ought to be attached to it; but as it has, if I mistake not, been made by persons whose judg-ness? Or, is it because they ment and whose motives we have the least reason to suspect, I am inclined to believe it must be founded in matter of fact. But if so, to what can it be owing? To this question I am at a loss for a reply. To say, that God sees fit to withhold that blessing, which is essential to the success of the ministry, is doubtless saying what is true, but not what is satisfactory.One is led to ask, Is there not a cause for this affecting procedure in the Almighty? A cause which did not apply in the former situations of such -ministers, but which does in the present. Now, what can be that cause? Is it because their talents are less suited to London, than they were to congregations in the country? This cannot be admitted, without implying a censure upon the judg-conspicuous and honourable siment of those who have pro-tuation? Is it from any, or cured their removal thither. Is from all of these causes united, it because they have less stimu- that the effect in question may lus to exertion than in their be supposed to arise? I really former situations? Surely, no; am at a loss for an answer, and are so much taken up in company and formal visits, or even in the more public concerns of religion at large, as to leave them scarcely sufficient time for the cultivation of their talents, and the regular discharge of the duties of their office? Or, do their literary pursuits so engross their attention, and spread an influence over their sermons and discourses, as to hide the simplicity of the gospel, and render them more like the disciples of Plato, of Cicero, or of Locke, than the ministers of a crucified Saviour? Or, does their elevated situation, in the largest and wealthiest city in the world, raise them, in their own apprehensions, above those laborious and self-denying services, to which they considered themselves obliged, in a less cannot prevail upon myself to | You will not, I hope, accuse verted to God, will be saved with an everlasting salvation. These are some of the awakening thoughts which chide my sloth, and urge me on to renewed exertions in my Master's work. Against the frowns of the enemies of religion, or the censures of its pretended or its lukewarm friends, should I meet with the one, or the other, as well as the fatigues and privations to which such exertions expose me, I balance the consolation arising from the prospect of the approbation of my Lord, and the full assurance he has given me," that they that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars, for ever and ever!" I am, my dear Sir, SINGULAR INTERVIEW BETWEEN A GERMAN MENNONITE MINISTER AND SOME POLISH NOBLES, THE following interesting account, communicated by the Rev. W. Rowe, of Weymouth, will put our readers in possession of the sentiments and conduct of a numerous body of Christians in Germany, before the period of the Reformation. There can be no doubt but these were some of the genuine descendents of the Waldensian Christians, and that they were totally distinct from the mad men of Munster; though thousands of Baptists, eminently |