fields, to be their minister, that office being vacant by the retirement of the Rev. Alexander Fletcher.

The Rev. W. P. Davis, formerly of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, late of Crediton, Devon, has accepted an invitation to the pastoral office over the Independent Church meeting at the new Tabernacle Plymouth, where he has commenced his stated labours. The Rev. J. C. Bicknell, formerly of Welford, late of Brownsover, Warwickshire, has accepted an invitation to the pastoral office over the Independent Church and congregation at Crick, Nor. thamptonshire, to which place he has removed with his family.

RECENT DEATHS.

At Romford, Essex, September 9th, 1825, died, in the 75th year of his age, the Rev. THOMAS STRAHAN, pastor of the ancient Independent church in Collier's Row Lane, in that town. He was originally employed in a mechanical business in the metropolis, and first visited Romford as an occasional preacher. He succeeded a Mr. Ellis in the pastoral charge there, in 1777, which he retained till his death. The eccentricities of this venerable minister frequently involved him in trouble; but he lived and died like an honest and a holy man.

Died on the 6th of October, in the 44th year of his age, Rev. THOMAS BULMAN BROWNE, late pastor of the Independent Church at Buntingford, Herts. This gentleman was educated at Hoxton Academy, and first settled as the pastor of the church at Burwash, in 1807; from whence he removed to Buntingford, in October, 1813. In January, 1819, his Meeting-house was destroyed by fire; which, however, was rebuilt by public liberality, and opened for public worship in the following September. Mr. B., having resigned his charge at Buntingford, retired to Hammersmith, where he died after a short illness. A residence of fourteen years in Hertfordshire had secured to Mr. B. the esteem of his brethren in that county. He has left a widow and a young family to lament his loss.

Died at Ware, on the 12th of October, Rev. GEORGE R. NORTH, for many years the respected pastor of the second Independent Church in that place. He has been for a long period a sufferer under the effects of paralysis. He was a man whom not even the tongne of slander dared to assail, and to whom Dissenters might point with satisfaction, as to a living comment en their principles.

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It is with unaffected grief we announce the death of the Rev. DAVID BOGUE, D D., for about 50 years the pastor of the Independent Church, Gosport, Hants, one of the founders of the London Missionary Society, and for many years the faithful tutor of its missionary students. Doctor had been invited by the committee of the Brighton Auxiliary Missionary Scciety to attend their first anniversary, and arrived there on Thursday, October 18. Though fatigued with his journey, he led the devotions of the public services that evening, and heard the Rev. G. Clayton preach. While at supper, however, in the house of the Rev. J. N. Gculty, he was attacked by the disease which, after a week of suffering, terminated his valued and useful life. The best surgical and medical assistance which friendship or influence could command was promptly obtained; but the symptoms continued to be of the most alarming kind till the Lord's day, when it was hoped he had received effectual relief; but this, alas! was soon found delusive, for on Monday, October 23, he with enviable composure fell asleep in Jesus, in the 77th year of his age. Upon the melancholy intelligence reaching London, an extraordinary meeting of the Directors of the Missionary Society was immediately convened; when appropriate resolutions were passed, and a deputation was appointed to attend the funeral, which, we understand, will take place at Gosport, on Thursday, the 3d instant. Dr. Winter, of London, has been requested by the Doctor's family to preach the funeral sermon at Gosport, on the evening of the interment.

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DOCTOR RYLAND was born, A. D. 1753, January 29, at Warwick, where his venerable father exercised his ministry for some years; from whence he removed to Northampton.

The most remarkable particular recorded in his infancy, is his early progress in the Hebrew language, which was such, that he read a chapter of the Hebrew Bible to the celebrated Hervey, before he was five years old. About his thirteenth year, he became deeply impressed with religious concern; and without any thing very singular in his experience, his convictions ripened into genuine conversion, and he was baptized on a profession of his faith in his fourteenth year. At the request of the church he began to exercise his ministerial gifts in his seventeenth year; and after continuing to assist his father for some years, he was ordained co-pastor with him in the year 1781. In this situation he remained for some time; when, on his father's removal from Northampton, he became sole pastor, until the year 1793, when he received an unanimous invitation to the joint offices of president of the NEW SERIES, No. 12.

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Bristol Education Society, and pastor of Broadmead. How he conducted himself in the first scene of his labours, many living wit'nesses can attest; suffice it to say, that his ministry during that period was eminently acceptable and useful. During his residence at Northampton, he was “ in labours more abundant;" far from confining his ministry to a single spot, he diffused its benefits over a wide circle, preaching much in the surrounding villages; and though, on his removal to Bristol, his numerous avocations rendered his ministerial exertions less frequent, he may justly be considered, on the whole, as one of the most laborious of pastors. He preached, during his whole career, not less than eight thousand six hundred and ninety-one sermons, and at two hundred and eighty-six distinct places.

If, as a preacher, he never attained the highest summit of popularity, he was always heard with attention. His ministry was replete with instruction, and not unfrequently accompanied with an unction which rendered it irresistible. As he possessed none of 4 K

those of elocution and mangraces ner which secure superficial applause, he was always most esteemed by those who heard him the oftenest; and his stated hearers rarely if ever wished to exchange the voice of their pastor for that of a stranger. His address was such as produced an instantaneous conviction of his sincerity. It displayed, even to the most superficial observer, a mind infinitely above being actuated by the lust of applause; a spirit deeply imbued with a sense of eternal realities, and ready to pour itself forth as a libation on the sacrifice of the faith and obedience of his converts. The effect of his discourses, excellent as they were in themselves, was prodigiously heightened by the veneration universally felt for his character, and the just and high estimation entertained of his piety. Piety, indeed, was his distinguished characteristic, which he possessed to a degree that raised him inconceivably above the level of ordinary Christians. Devotion appeared to be the principal element of his being: it was next to impossible to converse with him without perceiving how entirely it pervaded his mind, and imparted to his whole deportment an air of purity, innocence, and sanctity, difficult for words to express. His piety did not display itself in a profusion of religious discourse, nor in frequently alluding to the interior exercises of his mind on spiritual subjects. He was seldom known to speak of his religious joys or sorrows : his devotional feelings were too deep or too sacred to suffer themselves to evaporate in ordinary conversation. His religion appeared in its fruits; in gentleness, humility, and benevolence; in a steady, conscientious performance of every duty; and a careful abstinence from every appearance of evil. As little did his character partake of the ascetic. It never

entered into his thoughts that religion was an enemy to the innocent pleasures and social endearments of human life, of which he entertained a high relish, and which his constant regard to the Deity rendered subservient to piety, by the gratitude which they inspired, and the conviction which they deepened of the divine benignity. His love to the Great Supreme was equally exempt from slavish timidity and presumptuous familiarity: it was an awful love, such as the beatific vision may be supposed to inspire, where the worshippers veil their faces in that presence in which they rejoice with ecstatic joy. As he cherished a firm persuasion that the attributes of the Deity ensure the production of the greatest possible sum of good, in comparison of which, the quantity of natural and moral evil permitted to remain vanishes and disappears, his views of the divine administration were a source of unmingled joy; while his profound sense of the essential holiness and justice of the Supreme Ruler, kept alive those sentiments of penitence and humility, to which too many optimists are strangers. "He feared the great and terrible name of the Lord his God."

Humility was, in fact, the most remarkable feature of his character. It was depicted on his countenance, his manners, his language; it pervaded almost every thing he said or did. He might most truly be said, in the language of Scripture, to be "clothed" with it. The mode in which it operated was at the utmost remove from the shallow expedients adopted by those who vainly attempt to secure the praise of that quality, without possessing it. It neither prompted him to depreciate his talents, nor to disclaim his virtues; to speak in debasing terms of himself, nor to exaggerate his imperfections and failings. It taught him the rarer art of forgetting himself. His