REV. JOHN HUGH WORTHINGTON. THE late Rev. JOHN HUGH WORTHINGTON was descended from a family long resident in Leicester, and universally and deservedly respected. His great uncle was the Rev. Hugh Worthington, of Salters' Hall, London, one of the most eminent preachers of his day. His great grandfather was pastor of the Presbyterian congregation in Leicester more than fifty-six years. The subject of this memoir was born the 11th of November, 1804. During his earliest years he was subject to frequent attacks of severe illness, which, probably, enfeebled his constitution, and disposed him, more than most children, to seek amusement in sedentary occupations and pursuits. He was a pupil of the writer of this article more than eight years, and never excited an angry feeling or occasioned an uneasy thought. Delightful, indeed, were the employment of a teacher had he always such scholars. His understanding was excellent, his apprehension quick, his memory retentive, his manners respectful, his temper obliging, his application unremitting. It is but justice to observe, that he was greatly indebted to maternal care and direction, which encouraged and assisted him in his early studies. In this he resembles other remarkable persons who have ascribed their happiness and success in life to the affectionate assiduity of a judicious mother. Under these circumstances, it will be readily believed, his proficiency was great in every branch of learning. As a proof of the estimation in which he was held by his schoolfellows, it may be mentioned, that on the occasion of his leaving school, they made him a handsome present, accompanied with a letter expressive of their respect. About the age of sixteen he removed to the York College with very creditable testimonials from several neighbouring ministers. At the college his studies were pursued with increasing ardour and unwearied diligence. It is probable that he did not allow himself sufficient time for relaxation, either of body or mind; and that, if any conjecture may now with reason be formed, this was a predisposing cause of his subsequent illness. Young men in general so seldom injure themselves by application, that such instances

should be noted as very rare, and are even unsafe to record, lest the negligence of many should be hereby confirmed. I believe it may, without hesitation, be said, that at York he was universally esteemed by his tutors as well as his companions. Such was the kindness of his temper, such his modesty, humility, and benevolence, that he could not fail of obtaining the respect of those who disregarded his mental qualities and attaintments. It was about half a year before the expiration of his college studies that he was invited to become one of the ministers of the Cross - Street Chapel, Manchester; among the most numerous and respectable societies in our connexion. This invitation was accepted, and he removed thither at the conclusion of his college term. Never did any young minister enter upon his office with a more sincere and ardent desire to do good: his professional duty was his delight he devised plans for the improvement of his time for visiting the sick and the poor: for the benefit of all classes of those committed to his care; and was also very assiduous and anxious in the preparation for his public services. As a preacher his voice was clear and strong; his compositions sensible and instructive; his manner earnest and engaging: he had the persuasive eloquence of true piety, and of an ardent wish to do good. Had it pleased Providence to prolong his life, there can be no question that he would have become eminent and highly useful in his profession.

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About seven months since, he was visited with a severe affliction both of mind and body, which, after many changes, exciting alternately hope and fear in his afflicted family, terminated fatally the 4th July last. He endured a lingering illness with that patience and Christian resignation which might have been expected from his character. He frequently conversed about his approaching end, and died without pain, and in that peace which Christian principles alone can produce. Let those who look around upon their families with affection, and upon some, it may be, with pride and exultation as likely to be a credit to their name, let them moderate their joy with the recollection of the frailty of earthly happiness, and the vanity of human expecta

tions. Let the young learn by this example to seek not their reward in this world. Here we see how truly it is said of man, "He cometh up like a flower, and is cut down." By obedience to their parents, and kindness towards their relatives; by diligence, and piety, and virtue, let them adorn their useful spheres, that their parents may never think of them but with affection and delight, and that the gates of the grave may lead them to a brighter scene, where separation and death shall be known no more.

B.

P. S. When Mr. Worthington left Leicester, he was removed from the personal observation and acquaintance of the writer: on which account he has obtained permission to subjoin an extract from a funeral sermon for Mr. Worthington, delivered at Manchester, by his friend and fellow-student, the Rev. J. R. Beard, at his Chapel, Green Gate, Salford, whose observations, being those of an eye-witness, will come with greater weight and authority.

"On his entrance at the Manchester College, York, he was found to possess a degree of information and developement of mind which are rarely enjoyed by the students at the commencement of their collegiate course. During his residence at the College, his application was not only vigorous but sustained; and his exertions were crowned with entire success. For depth, variety, and accuracy of information, very few persons of his own age would endure a comparison with him. But it is most pleasing to recall to one's mind those moral qualities which endeared to him the hearts of all his companions in study. He possessed a sweetness of disposition, a delicate and cultivated sensibility, a tender regard to others' feelings, a solicitude for the welfare and happiness of his associates, combined with an oblivion of self, an equanimity of temper, and a warmth of affection, which rendered his conduct a model of imitation to his companions, whilst the purity of his bosom and the rectitude of his motives, his ardent piety and profound humility, gave promise to all who knew him of exemplary excellence and success in the sacred office of a Christian teacher, and threw a charm and a finish over his demeanour amid the intercourses of a college life. These were the virtues which secured him the affection of all the fraternity with whom for a time he was associated. Through them he lived in the college beloved, and left it regretted;

and when he went forth to enter upon the career which has so soon and so painfully terminated, not a heart was there that did not bid him 'God speed,' and scarcely a tongue that did not utter its fervent prayer for his success and happiness. We have said that he received an early dedication to the Christian ministry, and through the whole period of his education he kept constautly before his mind the grand end and object of his life. He devoted himself to the ministry because he loved its duties; his whole soul was engaged to the service of God; and many a delightful hour, though now mournful to remember, has the preacher spent with him in discoursing on the duties and pleasures of religion, and the duties, pleasures and difficulties of the pastoral office. From principle he was a firm believer in the supremacy and essential goodness of the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ-but estimated

opinions by their tendency to promote pious emotion and holy practice. In common with many others he lamented the comparative indifference to the claims of truth and duty which attach to the great body of Unitarians in England, and, if his life had been spared until his influence was corroborated, he would have been highly efficient in bringing about a more intense and heartfelt apprehension of religious truths, and a more vigorous and consistent maintenance of them, than now prevails amongst us. As it is, his influence in the college was highly valuable in countenancing and nourishing a religious tone of thinking and feeling, and in the establishment of a society, among the senior divinity students, for the support of missionary preaching in the vicinity of York. To this society, which he was a chief means of instituting, he invariably gave his best support, and thus lent his aid to the promotion and perpetuation of an institution to which not only the neighbourhood of the college owes much happiness, but many of the students also much of the success which may have attended, or shall attend, upon their ministry. These details of his college life may appear long and disproportiouate, but it is pleasing to me to dwell upon them.

"The period of his ministry was so short, that I love to contemplate him as a student, and to revert to days which were full of tranquil happiness and deceptive hope. At length, however, the period arrived when he was to enter upon his office. The days of preparation

were over and gone, and a situation which promised great usefulness and respectability was opened to him. The hesitation, and trembling anxiety with which I know that he entered upon his office, appears, by retrospection, to have been ominous of his mournful destiny. His solicitude was obvious to all the congregation; but all did not, could not, know how much of that solicitude regarded purely their welfare, nor how tender a heart they had attached to their interests. In him every one of his people, however poor, had a friend; his hand and his heart, to assist, advise, and comfort, were ever open to all. Many there are whom he succoured in want and in affliction, and who will, I trust, keep his memory embalmed in their bosoms. His vigilance in the discharge of all his pastoral duties was most exemplary but, especially, his attention to the sick and the dying was beyond all praise. He loved to smooth the brow of anguish it was congenial with his nature to weep with those who weep, and to comfort the departing spirit by the heavenly consolations of the gospel. Such a character could not fail to command esteem and affection; and, accordingly, with all those who are susceptible of, and therefore, can appreciate, the better emotions of our nature, to know him was to love him. We use no words of common-place when we say, that we feel for the society whose pastor he was, in the loss which it has sustained-a loss which, although it may not be irreparable, cannot easily be supplied. To his ministerial and pulpit, as well as to his pastoral, duties, he brought a heart of unusual purity and tenderness, and a mind gifted with talents well cultivated and of great promise His intellectual qualities were rather of a sound than a bold, rather of a discriminating than an original, character. Yet the fervour of his emotions often invested them with that energy and glow which, though it may not be genius, is, for the purposes of the Christian ministry, frequently of more utility. The natural fervency of his feelings, and the intensity of his religious appehensions, gave a charm and an energy to his addresses, which penetrated the bosom of a pious auditor, and found an echo in his heart. In a word, to the maintenance and the furtherance of vital religion his soul was devoted for this he tasked the best powers of his mind and heart, and whether in his own pulpit or in that of others, whether his object was the pro

VOL. I.

3 D

motion of home or foreign missions, of education among the poor, or the extension of general knowledge, he always appeared and was recognised as the servant of God. The master affection of his soul was faith in God through Christ —a firm, vital, practical faith, which had grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength. He was one

"-in whom persuasion and belief Had ripened into faith, and faith be

come

A passionate intuition; whence the soul,

Though bound to earth by ties of pity and of love,

From all injurious servitude was free.'

"This potent intuition, which, as by the power of a new sense, set before him realities invisible to common apprehension, guided his heart and conduct, and thence holy feeling had become spontaneous with him. To entertain pious sentiments never seemed with him the result of an effort; it was the natural impulse of the heart. Thus his pity and goodness were not gusty and tempestuous; true, they were warm, but not the less uniform and placid. Thus, also, his sense of duty was vigorous and prevail. ing. Like the prophet Samuel, he appeared to wait for the Divine command, and in the earnest pursuit of the will of God, his humble prayer was, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." Nor was he slow to execute what duty dictated: his feet were swift to do the will of his heavenly Father. With all his excellence, however, he is gone, and the world is so much the worse. He was one that the interests of virtue and religion could ill spare, and were there more like him amongst us, the condition of our race would be far superior to its actual state. Thus much, at least, is due to him, and to the interests of piety; less could not, more to his honour might, have been said. Even if flattery could sooth the dead, my tongue is unused to its dulcet notes, and I feel not a doubt, if on the present occasion I had attempted to use it, my heart would have refused its sanction, and made me feel that I was doing a dishonour to that sacred and pleasurable appreciation which I have of his character, and which, for one so young, I am sure can scarcely be surpassed. I must, however, tear myself from the subject of his virtue, on which the heart fondly lingers, as though it could compensate its

present-deprivation by recollections of departed and highly-valued excellence.

O niveam quæ te poterit mihi reddere lucem,

O mihi felicem terque quaterque diem!

Mrs. MARY BRISTOWE.

July 17, at Ringwood, Hants, universally lamented, aged 38 years, MARY, the beloved wife of the Rev. J. B. BRISTOWE, which endearing relation she had sustained barely fifteen weeks. A bilious fever, which neither the power of medicine, the tears of affection, nor the prayers of piety, could subdue or arrest, carried her, in ten days, to the land of silence and of death. Of this excellent woman it may be justly affirmed, that she was rationally pious and devout towards her Maker; humane and charitable to the poor; and governed in all her deportment by a high sense of moral and religious obligation. Affable in her manners, and alive to the deprivations of the humbler part of mankind, especially at the time of sickness, she promptly and in various ways administered to their wants; and, in return, she was greatly beloved and is deeply regretted by them. She might have appropriated to herself, with great truth, a line in Virgil: "Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco." She was zealous for the prosperity, and delighted at the recent increase, of the congregation; and which has been attributed, in some measure, to the moral influence which her character and example, and the esteem in which she was held, naturally threw around her; but another cause lent its aid in the good

work.

Had it pleased Divine Providence to prolong her life, there can be little doubt that she would have proved a very useful accession to the religious society with which she had become so intimately connected. She had formed a plan to visit the poor members regularly, with a view to ascertain their actual situations, intending to supply, from her own resources, or to procure from others, suitable relief: but the purposes of her heart were broken off, and her very thoughts are perished. During her severe illness, though she had hoped

* The attention paid to the SundaySchools by some young persons lately settled at Ringwood, of the value of whose services in this department the writer of this article is duly sensible.

and still prayed, "that God would not so soon separate her from the object of her affections, yet she was devoutly resigned to the Divine will." In this happy frame of mind she continued till she, at last, sunk under a disease with which her delicate constitution was unable successfully to struggle, quietly and placidly leaving this scene of uncertain happiness in the prospect of one more permanent hereafter. Her remains were deposited in the vault of her family in Ringwood churchyard, and the funeral service was impressively read by the officiating clergyman, himself deeply affected, having but a few short weeks before performed the marriage ceremony, when she appeared healthful, gay, and happy. An admirable discourse, in which a merited tribute was paid to her virtues and benevolence, was delivered on the melancholy occasion to a very crowded and sympathising audience, (increased by the Independent minister closing his chapel and attending in person, with most of his people,) by the Rev. E. Kell, A. M., of Newport, Isle of Wight, from James iv. 14, "What is your life?" &c. The service was concluded by the choir of the chapel giving, in a solemn and affecting manner, Luther's hymn.

Mr. JOHN DAVY.

B.

Aug. 15, at his father's house, Fordton, near Crediton, JOHN, the second son of Isaac DAVY, Esq. On the Sunday preceding the day of his decease, he had completed his 22nd year. But, though removed thus early, he had lived sufficiently long to give every promise of a character of solid worth, and a life of amiable usefulness.. He knew but the language of truth, and his word was a bond.

The rectitude of his heart discovered itself in his conduct; and the peace of an upright mind was stamped upon his brow. Worn down by the fatal malady, which endears while it bereaves, and beautifies what it destroys, his calm and manly resignation afforded a noble example of the ascendancy of the mind over a decaying frame. He died in his youth, but it was the death of the righteous.

With no blemish of vice, and every promise of virtue, he was called to that Being who alone can know for what purpose the good are thus prematurely removed from a world which might have been benefited by their labours, and made better by their example.