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7o 



MINISTRY AT STAND. [Chap. III. 



legal title to chapels, etc., founded before that year) : — " The 

 principal public object in which we have been engaged was the 

 promotion of the Dissenters' Chapels' Bill, in behalf of which 

 three petitions, numerously signed, were sent from this congre- 

 gation [one being from the schools], and one containing 

 upwards of five hundred signatures from friends in the neigh- 

 bourhood, not belonging to our Religious Society. It is a 

 great cause of thankfulness that we may now worship in peace 

 in the house of our fathers without molestation from without." 

 One result of this was the subscription of ^170 towards the 

 erection of a new school-room. After referring to the means 

 of usefulness connected with the congregation, he mentions a 

 Monday evening service (at Miss Mason's house) for the poor, 

 in which he had been assisted by the Independent and Sweden- 

 borgian ministers. " With respect to my own labours, I have 

 made altogether 1057 and received 351 visits, the majority of 

 which are among our own people. I have conducted upwards 

 of ninety class meetings, besides my regular business in the 

 Sunday school. I have also delivered about seventy lectures 

 and addresses on temperance, peace, and other subjects ; this 

 includes a course of lectures on the mammalia. Notwith- 

 standing the apparent number of these engagements, I have 

 to reproach myself for much waste of time and neglect of 

 pastoral duty : but I hope that, as I increase in experience, I 

 shall increase in the power and the will to do right ; and that 

 you will bear with me in my youth, and continue to me that 

 kind confidence which you have hitherto so generally resposed 

 in me. But, my friends, I can do nothing for you unless you 

 yourselves resolve to follow God, and to be led by Him. None 

 of us can succeed in our efforts to do good, or to increase in 

 holiness, unless we pray for His assistance, and give ourselves 

 fully to His service. In our labours for the welfare of others, 

 let us not despond ; but (to use the words of Matthew Henry) 

 hope the best, expect [prepare for] the worst, and then take 

 what God sends." 



On December 8th he preached (extempore) two sermons 

 at Todmorden, on "The duty of Christians to assist in the 



