and frequently expressed his thankfulness for the temporal as well as spiritual mercies with which he was surrounded. He was eminently a man of prayer, which was his element. Seldom did his friends depart, even after an ordinary visit, without his pouring out his soul with and for them at the throne of grace.

He often expressed a deep concern for the prosperity of the church of Christ, and particularly for that portion of it with which he had been, for so many years, connected, and frequently uttered an ardent wish, that it might be blessed with a faithful and devoted pastor, and it was a source of high satisfaction and comfort to his mind, that he had lived to see that desire accomplished.

His deep humility was evinced by frequent expressions of a sense of his own unworthiness, and often did he lament that he was able to do so little for his heavenly Master. He shrunk with abhorrence from the idea of ascribing any merit to himself; Christ was to him all in all.

One trait in his character as a Christian minister, was eminently conspicuous; his constant kind attention to the sick and poor of his charge. To visit these he considered not only a duty, but a privilege and a pleasure, and many have had reason to bless God for the edification and comfort which his fervent prayers and kind sympathies afforded them in seasons of sorrow and distress.

As he was born in April, 1757, and entered the church on earth at the age of sixteen, and departed to that in heaven, June 4, 1841, in his eighty-fifth year, he must have been nearly sixty-nine years a member of the Christian church. If there were any living who had been longer in a communion that requires a profession of regeneration, how few must they have been! How pleasant to reflect that his path, so long stretched out, had been as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day.

He was interred in the burial-ground belonging to the Congregational church at Chesterfield, followed by the deacons and other members of his former charge, and his funeral sermon was preached by his successor, who performed the same office, shortly after, for a daughter, soon deposited by the side of her honoured father.

Called into the fellowship of the church of Christ, when the church was waking up from long slumbers, he never left her to

fall asleep again. Faithful unto death, he turned not aside into divers and strange doctrines, but was a scriptural Calvinist, making a practical use of the doctrines of grace, preaching Christ crucified as the power of God unto salvation.

Though

he dealt not in abstractions, he had a clear discernment of the strength and weakness of each theological system, and saw far into their tendencies and defects.

But, like the rest of mankind, he partook of the character of his era, and bore the marks of one who entered into active life in the days of George the Second. He was a good speaker, because he was natural, and employed a pleasing voice with sufficient energy to be heard, and with so much devout and benevolent feeling as to be impressive and persuasive. He never pulled down with the one hand, what he built up with the other; and if more sacred fire would have improved his style and elocution, he flung abroad no unholy flames, nor diffused heat without light.

MEMOIR

OF THE LATE

REV. WILLIAM KINGSBURY, M. A.

FORTY-FIVE YEARS PASTOR OF THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH, SOUTHAMPTON.

This early friend and strenuous advocate of the London Missionary Society, whose name is embalmed in the recollections of thousands of the good, was born in Bishopsgate-street, London, on the 12th day of July, 1744. His parents were eminently alive to the best interests of their children, and, both by instruction and example, laboured to bring them in humble and grateful submission to the feet of Christ.

"These efforts," observes Mr. Buller, in his excellent memoir of Mr. Kingsbury, "were so far beneficial to the subject of the present narrative, as to produce in him, at an early period, timidity of conscience, a dread of offending that Almighty Being to whom all hearts are open, and the habit of secret prayer. This habit, however, he afterwards judged to have been merely formal and external-the constrained and educational homage of a heart as yet undisciplined in the true knowledge of itself, and of the great object of adoration, without any real aversion from the sins and follies which, from custom and wholesome restraint, he had been led to avoid."*

* Memoirs of the late Rev. William Kingsbury, M. A. By John Buller, 8vo. p. 1.

In 1753, Mr. K. lost his father, at the tender age of nine, and, in consequence of the scanty provision left for the support of his widowed mother and five children, was entered as a pupil at Merchant Tailor's School. He was afterwards, by the kind patronage of Sir John Barnard, removed from that seminary to Christ's Hospital, where he remained for three years. During the whole period of his school-course, he kept up, with more or less regularity, his habit of secret prayer, and was often much afflicted in conscience by the perusal of "Mason's Devout Sayings."

In 1758, having entered his fifteenth year, he left school, and, through the interest of a friend, was admitted a boarder into the academy for the education of Congregational ministers, at Mile End, under the joint superintendence of Drs. Conder, Walker, and Gibbons. It would appear that this step was somewhat rashly taken, as there does not appear to have been that decisive evidence of personal piety in Mr. Kingsbury at this time, which is so indispensable in a candidate for the sacred office. But as his deportment was correct, his views serious, and his attainments superior, a sanguine friendship probably anticipated the rest. Mr. Kingsbury himself soon began to doubt his call to the work of the ministry, and felt the necessity of undergoing a great spiritual change, which had not as yet passed upon him. His conscience became very uneasy; and in this unhappy state, with but very partial views of Divine truth, he set himself, in a legal way, to do something very like working out a righteousness of his own. Meanwhile he prosecuted his classical, mathematical, and other studies with considerable vigour, and made good progress in the knowledge of the Scriptures in the original tongues.

In the summer vacation of 1760, it became necessary to decide the question whether or not he should return to the Academy as a divinity student; and, as a previous step, agreeably to the rules of the Academy, he was required to give a written account of the rise and progress of religion in his mind. The thought of furnishing such a document overwhelmed him with consternation. He was too honest to affect what he did not feel, and all but resolved not to return to his studies. His tutor, Dr. Conder, however, prevailed with him to reverse his determination; but on the very evening of his return, on reading some remarks of Bunyan on the unpardonable sin, horror

seized upon his soul, under an impression that he had been guilty of the irremediable offence. He bathed his couch with his tears, and cried with much bitterness of soul unto God. He felt more oppressively than ever that he must relinquish all thoughts of the ministry. Meanwhile his fellow-students perceived the entirely altered tone of his mind-the deep seriousness which pervaded his whole character. Mr. Ashburner, in particular, afterwards for many years the beloved and affectionate pastor of the Congregational church at Pool, in Dorsetshire, observed his altered state, and took much pains to guide his youthful friend into the way of peace. The effect was, a temporary consolation, which was succeeded, at no distant period, by returning gloom; he fell into what he described as a "hideous confusion." All the warning and terror which he heard in sermons he applied to himself, and became at the same time awfully perplexed and bewildered upon the subjects of the Divine decrees and human accountableness. He was driven to the very borders of despair; and once, while attending public worship, had such distressing thoughts in reference to the person of Christ, as, in his opinion at that time, amounted to the sin of blasphemy. Yet was he continually praying for deliverance from the sin and guilt which he imagined he had contracted. It pleased God, however, on the evening of that very day (Oct. 7, 1760), when his misery had reached its climax, to scatter his unbelieving fears, and to bring him into the glorious light and liberty of the gospel.

"In the evening of this day," observes Mr Buller, "which to him was ever memorable, as he was walking homeward to the Academy, still absorbed in mental prayer, unbelief was removed from his mind; he was enabled to exercise a humble faith in that Saviour who has declared that they who seek shall find,' and that 'him who cometh, he will in nowise cast out.' The most delightful peace followed. He had no more doubts, for a season, of his real interest in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' through the atonement and intercession of his Son, by the agency of his Holy Spirit, than he had of his own existence. The result was, the possession of the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,' amounting even to 'joy unspeakable, and full of glory;' so that he desired even to die, and to be with Christ' in safety for ever."

Mr. Kingsbury continued to prosecute his course of study for four years; but during the entire period of his college-life he enjoyed the happiness of close communion with God, and maintained a walk and conversation in the highest degree becoming a candidate for the sacred ministry.

In February, 1762, he became a member of the church at Haberdashers' Hall, then under the pastoral care of the late

Dr. Gibbons, who had greatly attached his young friend by many endearing offices of friendship. In the beginning of next year Mr. Kingsbury lost his beloved mother, who entered in full triumph into the joy of her Lord. He felt the pang of separation to be most keen; for she had prayed and laboured for his conversion, and had looked forward to his engagement in the ministry with unspeakable delight.

In August, 1763, Mr. K. preached his first sermon in the place of worship of his venerable and beloved tutor, Dr. Walker, of Bethnal-green, from Rom. viii. 1; which gave promise of his future eminence as a Christian divine.

In 1764, he passed the usual examinations imposed upon students on quitting the Academy; on which occasion he delivered and defended a Latin thesis, in answer to the question: "An obedientia ac perpessiones Christi, nobis imputatæ, sint sola causa et fundamentum justificationis nostræ coram Deo?". "Are the obedience and sufferings of Christ, imputed to us, the sole cause and ground of our justification before God?" The thesis is said to have possessed very considerable merits, both as to sentiment and composition. He also delivered a sermon from 1 Pet. iii. 18; and received from the ministers present a testimonial highly creditable to his diligence, acquirements, and unexceptionable good conduct.

His first station, as a preacher of the gospel, was Tooting, in Surrey, where he succeeded Dr. Henry Miles, a man of learning, and Fellow of the Royal Society. His labours in that village commenced while he was a student, and continued till the autumn of the year in which he retired from college. At that period Dr. Gibbons induced him to supply the vacant pulpit of the Independent congregation at Southampton; the result of which was an invitation to become their pastor, which, after mature deliberation, he accepted. His ordination took place on the 8th of October, 1765, on which occasion the following pastors took part in the service :-Dr. Gibbons, of London; Dr. Samwell, of Romsey; and the Rev. Messrs. T. Williams, of Gosport; D. Boreman, of Winchester; E. Atkins, of Newport; W. Wright, of Ringwood; and R. Rice, of Lymington.

In addressing himself to his new charge, on this solemn day, Mr. Kingsbury produced a deep and thrilling sensation, by the brief but touching appeal-" Remember, I am young, and need your candour." When he first entered on his pastoral charge,