My family having arrived, and my little business being arranged, I entered upon the duties of my office, as minister of the Swedenborgian chapel at Hull. The chapel was a large one, seated for about nine hundred or a thousand people. The congregation did not consist of more than twenty, so that for the time being there was but a small prospect for a man with a family of five children. However, I commenced my duties, and was gathering together few strangers, when I thought it would be best at once to call a meeting of the trustees, that I might secure the income of £40, and which I had been given to understand belonged to the minister absolutely. I did so, but when the trustees had assembled, I found that there were outstanding debts incurred by processes of law, which the trustees were desirous of liquidating before the minister's salary could be paid, and the payment of these debts would take some years. This was a serious blow to me. I had depended upon the salary, and thought that with attention I might raise enough to pay the rent of my house by pew rents from the chapel, but this at the end of the quarter I found myself incapable of doing, for the whole amount of my pew rents was but two pounds ten shillings. My situation was now in the highest degree painful. I was comparatively a stranger in the town, with a wife and a family of five young children. Although I had commenced business in my profession as a chemist, my entire receipts for the whole quarter had not been more than five pounds, and this was at once absorbed in the payment of rent. I had, when I arrived in Hull, enough money to support my family for three months, but not a shilling more, and I was entering upon a second quarter with but the amount of the before-mentioned pew rents, viz., fifty shillings. My kind friend Mr. George Senior had given me, as already stated, ten pounds, and had expressly enjoined me to write to him at the end of the quarter,. and make a statement of my affairs, so I thought I would do so, as I had not another friend in the world to whom I could apply, and want was absolutely staring me in the face. Previous to doing this, however, I thought it was my duty to make the people who composed the congregation acquainted with my circumstances; reminding them of the terms of my agreement, namely, that I was to receive £40 a year, besides the pew rents. I did so : but the trustees contended the Society had no right to make such an agreement without first consulting them, and they were determined that no salary should be given until the debts were all paid. There was one family, of two brothers and a sister, who felt deeply for my situation, and they assured me they would do all in their power to assist me, and they kept their word. Their name was Middlemist. I think they were the most amiable and united family I ever knew. They were at that time all unmarried, and carrying on business as dyers. The elder, Mr. David, has since married, but is now a widower. I cannot speak in terms too high of the kindness I received from them; they were the means of supporting me in my greatest extremity; they were, and the survivors are to this day, my warmest friends. One of this family has gone to the eternal world, and his obituary records that his little property was disposed of for the furtherance of that cause which he had so much at heart. The brother and sister live, and their truly christian conduct is known and admired, not merely among the community of Swedenborgians, but by the whole inhabitants of the town in which they have during their whole lives been residents. 'May they live longer than I have time to tell their years, ever beloved and loving!' While my distress in Hull was at its extreme point, when five shillings a week composed the whole of my available means of support-for, as I before said, the whole proceeds of my shop did but afford enough to pay my rent-news arrived of the departure to the spiritual world of the Rev. J. Clowes, M.A., Rector of St. John's Church, Manchester. He was considered, and with justice, as the most eminent man among the Swedenborgians, and I was requested to deliver a funeral sermon on the day of the interment of his mortal remains. I consented conditionally that the Society should make the subject known. to the town; and that the discourse, besides a brief memoir of Mr. Clowes, should give the Swedenborgian doctrine of the resurrection' and the life after death.' Accordingly the town was placarded, and on the appointed evening the chapel was, for the first time since my ministry, filled with an attentive audience. I first took a view of the life and labors of Mr. Clowes as a minister of the gospel, and of the catholicity of spirit in which all his duties were performed. I summed up that part of my discourse, as far as I can remember, in nearly the following words : 'I look upon the late Mr. Clowes as an especial instrument raised up, by the Divine Providence of the Lord, for the guidance and support of his infant church. Inflexibly just, his discourses were levelled at every false doctrine, whether existing in the national church of England, or among the various sects which had separated from it but one distinguishing feature in his writings was the heavenly spirit in which they were expressed. While he never in the slightest degree compromised the truth, Christian love, benevolence, meekness, and humility pervaded everything which passed from his pen. The reader is insensibly brought into communion with the author. He had the art of stating the most unpalatable truths in the most winning language, and the most determined of his opponents could not refrain from expressing their admiration at the christian temper with which he administered his reproofs. I look upon Clowes in much the same light as Dr. Doddridge viewed Fleetwood, "as the silver-tongued champion of Divine truth," remarkable amidst the light of his subject for ease and propriety of expression." Besides translations of many of Swedenborg's Works, Mr. Clowes was a very voluminous author himself. One |