Jan. 16.-Mrs. Froggatt, Stretton-underFosse. Jan. 17.-Mrs. Thomas James, Canonbury. SPECIAL MEETINGS. A public dinner was held at the London Tavern in behalf of the HOME AND SCHOOLS FOR THE SONS OF MISSIONARIES AT BLACKHEATH. Sir Morton Peto, Bart, M.P., in the chair. The sum of £1,500 was raised at the meeting for the liquidation of the debt on the building. The annual income is £600 below the expenditure, and an urgent appeal is made to the friends of missions for increased support. TESTIMONIALS. To Rev. Dr. Campbell, on resigning the editorship of Christian Witness and Christian Penny Magazine. £500 from Christion Witness Fund. To Rev. J. Curwen, Plaistow, on his resignation at Plaistow. Plate. To Rev. J. W. Coombs, on the same occasion. An inkstand. To Rev. Watson Smith, on leaving Longsight. Bible and purse. To Rev. H. Ollard, Derby, as Secretary of the Nottingham Institute. Time-piece and purse. To Rev. W. M. Paull, on leaving Totnes. Plate and Books. To Rev. J. Elrick, M.A., on leaving Clare for Dundas Street, Sunderland. To Rev. Dr. Lillie, Toronto, on removal of College to Montreal. Plate and purse of gold. The Subscribers to the Testimonial Fund for Rev. Dr. Campbell breakfasted together at Radley's Hotel, Blackfriars, on Tuesday, January 19th, 1865. The Right Hon, the Earl of Shaftesbury presided, and presented, in the name of the Subscribers, an address to the Rev. Dr. Campbell, on attaining his seventieth year, and on withdrawing from some of the public duties in which he had been long engaged. The sum of £3000 was also presented by his Lordship in the name of the Subscribers, as an expression of their high esteem for his personal character, and their sense of the value of his services in the cause of freedom, of Bible extension, and of Evangelical truth. The Meeting was addressed by his Lordship, Dr. Ferguson, Dr. Morton Brown, Thomas Thompson, Esq., and Dr. Campbell. Thanks were presented to the noble Chairman, on the motion of George Davies, Esq., LL.D., T. Chambers, Esq., Common Sergeant, and J. W. Hare, Esq. THE LORD'S PRAYER: AN IMITATION FROM THE ANGLO-SAXON. FATHER of all, to Thee we pray, Forgiven our sins, through Him, by Thee. Father, close fast the gates of Hell; For Thine the Kingdom, Thee we own This earth Thy Footstool-Heaven Thy Throne ; All Glory Thine: By sons of men Be ever praised Thy Name. Amen. THE CHRISTIAN WITNESS, AND CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE. MARCH, 1865. THOMAS TOLLER, OF KETTERING. MORE than forty years have passed away since devout men carried Thomas Toller to his burial, and since Robert Hall bewailed him in one of the most concise and touching little memoirs that even his most careful pen ever produced. But now, after all these years, when Toller has been chiefly known through Hall's sketch, or through the genial anecdotes related of him, fresh attention has been directed to his life and work. Mr. Coleman, who from infancy was brought up under the ministry of the Pastor of Kettering, has given us extracts from some of the most powerful of his pulpit and platform efforts— efforts, which, according to Hall, produced at times such an effect upon the audience as he had never witnessed before. Thomas Toller was born at South Petherton, Somersetshire, in the year 1756. His father was an attorney of some eminence in his profession, and he had two brothers, who were brought up to their father's calling. In after years Thomas was accustomed with much gratitude to dwell upon the godliness, tenderness, and prudence of his kind parents. He remembered especially those hallowed Sabbath evenings when all were called together, parents and children and servants, and an hour was spent in devotion, his father being the priest of the household, reading out to all present a stirring sermon, and concluding the service of this church in the house' by solemn prayer. The youth must have owed much to the influences, teachings, and example of a home like this, for although he did not in those days like religion, as he said, such evenings were among his happiest seasons, and exerted an influence for good over his entire character. It was to a tender mother's solicitude and anxious prayers, however, that he attributed those religious impressions which ended in his decision for Christ. * Facts and Incidents in the Life and Ministry of the late Rev. Thomas Northcote Toller. By Thomas Coleman. London: John Snow, Paternoster Row, 1865. VOL. I.-NEW SERIES. K Thomas Toller was only fifteen years of age when his parents sent him to the Daventry Academy to be trained for the work of the ministry. This was a bold step for either his parents to urge or for him to take. By all accounts the students of Daventry were known as men of no mean repute in literary attainments, but as most imperfect theologians. Robert Hall says, that the majority of the students were more distinguished for their learning than for the fervour of their piety, or the purity of their doctrine. To find himself all at once in the midst of thinkers, speculators, doubters, debaters, must have been no small trial to a youth of fifteen. He was, however, highly favoured in his theological tutor, the Rev. Mr. Robins, of whom he used often to say, that he considered him the wisest and best man he ever knew. Under the influence of this wise and good man, Mr. Toller completed his academical course of four years. At this time, by the advice of Mr. Robins, the church of Kettering being vacant, he went to supply there for a single Sabbath, without the remotest idea in his mind, however, of preaching with a view to the pastorate. The congregation at Kettering originated with the Act of Uniformity, in 1662, and passed through the trials and threatenings of that period. The Independent Church survived, and after a succession of worthy pastors, we find amongst them the Rev. Benjamin Boyce, who for thirty years held the pastoral office with increasing usefulness, harmony and comfort. But his successor's ministry of two years, left the church in a most unhappy and distracted state. It was while things were in this condition, that Thomas Toller, a youth not twenty years of age, went to Kettering, and he preached there for the first time, Oct. 1st, 1775. His pulpit services produced such an impression, and his manners in private were so gentle and unassuming, that he was asked to preach again and again. At length, much to his own surprise, he received a very cordial invitation to the pastoral office. This invitation, with much fear and trembling on his part, he was induced to accept, and he was ordained pastor of the church, May 28th, 1778. Among those who took part in the ordination service, were the young pastor's uncle, the Rev. Thomas Toller, of London; his tutor, the Rev. Thomas Robins; Samuel Palmer, of Hackney, with a number of neighbouring ministers. The day closed, and saw a youth scarcely twenty years of age the recognized minister of a large, but unhappily divided church and congregation. Yet such wisdom was given him from on High, that that day was the beginning of a ministry eminent for its success, and extending over a period of forty-five years. The chapel in which he preached, stood in the midst of a population of about three thousand inhabitants. It was a square brick building, with double roof, large pulpit windows, and other lights in proportion. The area was well paved, while the aisles were wide enough to provide free sittings for the poor. There were three deep galleries, and a substantial oaken pulpit, while from the centre of the place hung a chandelier with twenty-four sockets. This was the chapel in which the young pastor, pale, emaciated, and consumptive-looking, and speaking in the solemn tones befitting one who was standing on the verge of eternity, had to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ,-not in the cold general way of Daventry students, but with all the earnestness and pathos of his own experience, and deep individual convictions, if he would save souls. The first work to which he set himself is worthy of special notice. Rightly judging that he could expect little or no ministerial success while the church remained in a divided, contentious state, he began very quietly, but very earnestly, to do what he could to allay jealousies and animosities, and to repair the breach. He allowed no one to see that he was doing this; but he went in and out amongst his flock breathing the spirit of peace, and making it silently evident that he desired the spiritual good of his people above everything else. He paid no attention to past unpleasantness, listened to no scandal, made no parties, formed no special favourites, neglected not one member of the church; and although he might, as a young man, have seen many alterations required in the conduct of the worship and affairs of the church, yet he made no changes. There was not a spark of Jesuitism in all this. In reading what has come before us of Toller's character, we are compelled to admit that what we have stated was only in harmony with his generally amiable and peace-loving disposition. Nor were his efforts without the most signal tokens of success. He had not long been ordained before several joined the church, and ascribed their conversion to their young minister's labours. Increasing harmony began to prevail, and his heart was greatly encouraged by witnessing the growing piety of the people of his charge. deed, a spirit of deep devotion seems soon to have pervaded the church, and Mr. Toller frequently expressed his gratitude that he was the pastor of a people who strengthened his piety, and confirmed his attachment to the great truths of Christianity. In Peace and harmony being once more restored to the church, we watch the Pastor of Kettering for a period of more than forty years doing nothing, caring to do nothing, but his ministerial work. It is a life quite uneventful and monotonous, some, perhaps, will think. A man with his powers ought to have aimed at something higher, ere he died, than Kettering enabled him to achieve, another may exclaim; but it was the vineyard in which the Master had placed him while the dew of his youth was upon him, and there he was content to remain until that Master said to him, "Give an account of thy stewardship." Of course such a man as Toller was not likely to remain without invitations to remove to what might be considered more important spheres of labour; to all such, however, he returned a decided negative. In the love of his flock, and in calmly doing his Master's will, he was content to let a long life glide away, without a single ambition for any change that would bring him, in return for decided usefulness, the mere bauble of popularity. The one work of his life, and in the pursuit of which he gathered materials from every possible direction, was to feed the flock committed to his keeping. He was seldom absent from them, and he was happiest when engaged in finding out new pastures into which to lead them. In one sense, he was always studying. He was accustomed to rise very early, and betake himself to the neighbouring woods. There he would be seen by the farm-labourers going to their work, and with these he would converse in homely, friendly fashion. From the beauties of nature, from the husbandman sowing and reaping, from the song of birds, and especially the joys and habits of childhood, he would derive ever new illustrations by which to enforce Divine truth. There was a freshness and devotional depth about all his sermons, and his sabbath day efforts to benefit his hearers, (so we are assured,) were even anticipated by them as a mental feast in the midst of the week's trials and cares. In his pulpit engagements, he had marked out for himself a well-defined plan, from which he seldom departed. In the morning he was accustomed to expound, and for several years he was occupied with an exposition of the life of Moses, and of our Lord. In the evening, he generally seized hold of something in the exposition of the morning, capable of expansion and practical application to the wants of his hearers; and thus he made morning and evening alike tell upon the special truth he had sought during the day to carry home to the hearts and consciences of hundreds who earnestly listened to him. And while thus thorough as a preacher and an expositor, he was not less successful in conducting the devotional services of the sanctuary. The same freshness, the same deep pathos, characterized his public prayers Sunday after Sunday. He is described as a man of almost unrivalled eminence in prayer. Hall says of him, "that his addresses to the Supreme Being united every excellence of which they are susceptible." He poured out his whole soul in an easy unaffected flow of devotional sentiment; adoration seemed to be his natural element, and as he appeared to lose all consciousness of any other presence but that of God, he seldom failed to raise his audience to the same elevation, to make them realize the feeling of Jacob, when he exclaimed "How awful is this place!" His pulpit and his platform efforts were alike marked by the utmost Catholicity of sentiment. The whole manner in which he abandoned the mere Nonconformist for the more dignified title of Christian, when, in the presence of the Duke of Grafton, he urged the claims of the Bible Society upon all believers in Jesus, will never be forgotten. Year after year he more and more deeply subscribed to the Apostle's words, "the greatest of these is charity." The originality of his sermons was a marvel to many. He clothed common truths with which all were acquainted, with the grandeur of the miraculous; and with the mighty force of his own earnest belief in what he declared, a whole congregation would be dissolved in tears. Nor must his faithfulness as a pastor be forgotten. While he shrunk from the foolish and sinful waste of time into which so-called pastoral visitation so often dwindles, he was ever ready to stand by the bed of the afflicted and to speak words in season to the weary and heavy-laden. And so in the spirit which we have attempted to depict, forty-five years of useful, pious, earnest ministerial life passed away. The source of all his power was the devotional element in which he daily lived, moved, and had his being. He had his severe trials; the loss of a beloved wife after three years of happy married life, as well as a painful season of spiritual depression which took hold of him in the end of life, were the occasions of the deepest sufferings to him, and his sorrow is supposed to have had much to do with successive fits of apoplexy, which eventually shortened his days, and called him to his heavenly rest. |