station, a violent storm of wind and snow came on. His wife and children urged him not to go out on a night so boisterous and full of danger; but binding a large shawl over his hat, and securing it round his throat, he walked the five miles, and in spite of the rough weather, found the farm-house kitchen full. "Well," | said he, as he looked around, "if you will come to hear I will come and preach." The following document, addressed to his then beloved wife, but now sorrowing widow, will give some idea of the kind of life which our departed friend led during the thirty-six years he was minister of Heathfield chapel. The date is not recent : "Heathfield, September 29, 1836. "My beloved Jane,-As you have frequently expressed a desire to have a statement of my ministerial labours, since we have been at Heathfield, I feel great pleasure in presenting to you the following extract from the Evangelical Magazine, for December, 1829. 'April 23, 1829. - The Rev. John Press, formerly of the Island of Guernsey, and eighteen years assistant to the late Rev. George Gilbert, of Heathfield, in Sussex, was ordained pastor of the Independent church of Christ, formerly under his pastoral care. The Rev. Mr. Harris, of Lewes, began the service by prayer and reading the Scriptures; the Rev. Mr. Drury, of Shoreham, described the nature of a gospel church, asked the usual questions, and received the confession of faith; the Rev. George Evans, of London, offered up the ordination prayer; the Rev. Mr. Bannister, of Arundel, delivered the charge in a most affectionate manner; and the Rev. Mr. Edwards, of Hanover chapel, Brighton, preached to to the people; the Rev. Messrs. Thornton, of Bognor, Smith, of Lindfield, and Lefevre, of Cuckfield, gave out the hymns; the service was solemn and impressive. In answer to one of the questions proposed, Mr. Press stated, that from Feb. 23, 1811, when he first came to Heathfield, to the 23rd of February, 1829, a pe riod of eighteen years, he had ascertained, from his journal, that during that period, he had preached statedly in nine villages, and occasionally in several others; had travelled 16,000 miles, 14,000 of which he had travelled in village preaching, and the greater part on foot. Preached 3,556 sermons; baptized and registered in the chapel register-book, 923 children, and buried fifty persons in the chapelyard. And through the goodness and mercy of God, though at times exposed to very severe weather, he had not been laid aside from his arduous task more than six sabbaths during that long period. "To the above statement allow me to add, that from the 23rd of February, 1829, to the 25th of September, 1836, a period of seven years and seven months, I have preached statedly in six villages, and occasionally in others; travelled 5,978 miles in village preaching, the greater part not on foot; preached 1,398 sermons; baptized 367 children, and buried seventy-one persons in the chapelyard; and through the goodness and mercy of God, have not been laid aside for more than six sabbaths. During this later period, and when you consider my age-having entered my seventieth year have we not both cause to exclaim, with heartfelt gratitude, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.' From the foregoing statement, it will appear that I have entered upon the seventieth year of my age; that we have been at Heathfield rather more than twenty-five years; that during that time I have travelled, in village-preaching, 19,978 miles; have preached 5,554 sermons; baptized 1,290 children, and buried 121 persons in the chapel-yard. "That the Lord should have afforded strength of body and mind for the performance of the above-stated labours, demands our most sincere and grateful acknowledgments; nor should we forget the almost numberless acts of kindness we have received from the church and congregation in general. May the Lord abundantly bless them, and may our service continue to prove both acceptable and profitable. "Yours most affectionately, "Mrs. Jane Press, But the following document is still more interesting. It is a brief review of ministerial labour the very day before he was called upon to leave his people and his beloved work for a higher and holier state. It is not necessary to state to whom it was addressed: "As a proof that I have done what I could to promote the glory of God and the prosperity of the church and congregation at Heathfield, permit me to state, that I came to Heathfield in year 1811; from that time up to year 1831, a period of twenty years, I preached twice at Heathfield on the sabbath, and once a month in nine villages, and occasionally in several others. For the last fifteen years I have preached twice at Heathfield on the sabbath, twice a month at Burwash on the sabbath, and for some time twice a month on the week-day; once a month at Cowbeach; and, until the death of Mr. John Reeves, once a month on the sabbath-day at Waldron ; once a month at Peckhill; and occasionally in several other villages; and it appears from my journal that, during this thirty-five years, I have travelled, in village preaching, nearly 26,000 miles, the far greater part on foot; that I have baptized and registered 1,703 children and 3 adults; that I have buried in our chapel-yard 217 persons. For the last twelve years I have been obliged to ride to the different villages where I preach, my bodily infirmities having rendered me incapable of walking any considerable distance without suffering great pain. "That I have been thus enabled to labour for so many years together, with very little interruption, has appeared a wonder unto many, but more especially to myself, and demands increasing praise to the Lord for his goodness, and sincere thanks to you, sir, and many other Christian friends, for the kindness re ceived from them; and I cherish the hope that the Lord will not cast me off, and that the church and congregation at Heathfield will not forsake me now my strength faileth. "That the Lord may bless you, your beloved wife and numerous family, with the best of blessings, and long spare you to render efficient aid to the cause of God at Heathfield, is the desire and Dear sir, prayer of, "Yours respectfully, "J. PRESS." The above was written on Saturday, August 1, 1846. He departed this life the following Lord's day, August 2nd, at a quarter past two P.M., after administering the ordinance of the Lord's Supper in the chapel at one o'clock. He was in the bosom of his family; his friends were around him; his God and Saviour was present; his end was peace. A few days afterwards, and his mortal remains were committed to the tomb, in that burial ground in which he himself had interred so many. The Rev. W. Davis, of Hastings, addressed the weeping assembly in the chapel and at the grave; and on the 9th inst., the funeral sermon for our departed father in the gospel was preached by the same minister. The congregation, always interesting, from the circumstance that the chapel is situated in a very thinly populated district, and yet attended by from four to five hundred persons, was on that day peculiarly so. fifty vehicles of different kinds brought the distant friends of the departed; not a few of the most respectable inhabitants of the neighbourhood were present; numbers could not crowd within the thronged sanctuary; and deep was the emotion with which all listened to the character of their late pastor by one who had known him nearly thirty years. A scene somewhat similar was witnessed at Burwash on the evening of the same day. The chapel was crowded, and impressions, we trust deep and permanent, were made. About Thus has passed away, in his eightieth year, a plain (we may say it without offence to his family), rustic minister of the gospel. He knew little of literature, of science, of taste, or of refinement. He was not a scholar: and, in one sense of the term, he knew nothing of theology. He had studied no ancient, no modern, systems of divinity. He knew nothing of Carlyleism, of anti-supernaturalism, or of the jots and tittles of biblical criticism; but he knew, what it well behoves every minister of the gospel to know,— that man is a sinner; that Christ is the only Saviour; and that "without holiness no man can see the Lord." This was the sense of his preaching, the secret of his holy and consistent life, and his spur to exertion in the work of the Lord. One document our departed friend left behind him, which is not deficient in instruction. This document is his will. We not infrequently see our journals noticing the wealth which the sons of affluence leave behind them reckoned by hundreds of thousands. Its distribution is also sometimes noticed, so that individuals and societies, for whom little or nothing was done during their life, have reason to be thankful for their death. The sums are large which thus fall to the lot of heirs and legatees-so large, in not a few instances, as to induce us to ask, how so vast an amount of the mammon of unrighteousness was gathered together. No inquiry of this kind is suggested by the will of our departed friend. He did not leave his thousands, or even his hundreds. No legacy duty can be claimed, no solicitors will be either troubled or benefited. There will be no family disputes, no bickering nor strife, as to the distribution of the effects of the late Rev. J. Press. Here is the document; it was without a date, but evidently written many years before his death: "In the name of God, amen. I, John Press, of the parish of Heathfield, in the county of Sussex, pastor of the church of Christ of the Indpendent denomination, assembling for worship at the chapel in the parish of Heathfield, in the before named county of Sussex, being, through mercy, in good health and understanding, although in the sixty-fifth year of my age, do, for the settling of my temporal concerns, and the disposal of what little property it hath pleased the Lord in his good providence to give, or may be pleased to give me, make this my last will and testament, as follows: "First, I most humbly commit my soul to my most gracious God and Saviour, who mercifully spared me, while living in open rebellion against him, called me, by his grace, in my one-and-twentieth year, and for the last twenty-six years has condescended to permit and enable me to preach the glorious gospel of the blessed God. I rely with humble confidence upon the atonement and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, for pardon and acceptance, and eternal life, being the only foundation whereon a sinner can build his hope, trusting that he will graciously guard and guide me through the remainder of my life, support and comfort me in death; and that he will then be pleased to admit me into his blessed presence and heavenly kingdom. "Secondly, as to my body, I will and desire, if I should die at Heathfield, that it may be decently interred in the burialground belonging to the chapel in which I have long laboured; and I indulge the hope that, in consideration of my long and faithful services, the church and congregation will pay the expenses attendant upon my funeral, and also, that they will kindly assist in making provision for the support of my beloved wife. "To those highly respected Christian friends, whose kindness and liberality have so greatly contributed to the comfort and happiness of my life, I return my most hearty thanks, and feel assured that they will do what they can to promote the comfort of my beloved wife and family." Nearly twenty years have elapsed since this document was written. His family have grown up, and are settled in life. But there had been no accumulation in the interim. He left a small quantity of household furniture, a few books, some garden plants and shrubs, and a small sum-under, I believe, twenty poundsdue to him from his people. In addition to this, he left two Bibles for two of his children; and these were all his worldly effects. And yet I never met with a more cheerful or more happy man, nor one more beloved by his children. So Hastings, April, 1847. NONCONFORMITY VIEWED IN RELATION TO VITAL GODLINESS. The Substance of a Discourse delivered before an Association of Ministers and Churches at Oxford, on the 27th April, 1847. may try to estimate the characters of our ecclesiastical forefathers, that we may truthfully determine our own actual position and standing as their children of another generation. "We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old." Psa. xliv. 1. As Protestant Nonconformists, looking to the word of God as our sole guide, in matters pertaining to conscience and religion, we are but little disposed to boast ourselves of our spiritual ancestry. If the principles espoused by our fathers were not in accordance with the "living oracles of God," no lapse of years could invest them with the attributes of truth; and however strict their harmony with the Divine standard, they could avail us nothing in the way of mere ancestral reliance, if it could be shown that we had lost their vital power. We may, indeed, be descended of a noble "of whom the world was not race, worthy;" and yet our spiritual pedigree may be of as little value to us as was that of the scribes and pharisees in the days of our Lord, who boasted that they "had Abraham to their father," while the voice of Incarnate Deity proclaimed in their ears the unwelcome message, that "they were of their father the devil, because his works they did." And yet there is a sense in which, not only lawfully, but with advantage, we may examine the relation in which we stand to the great and holy men, who in the olden time bore witness to the same church principles with ourselves. Though neither among the living nor the dead are we disposed to call any man "master, for one is our Master, even Christ, and all we are brethren;" yet assuredly, in surveying the retrospect of the past, we If, from the very complexion of our religious belief, as Nonconformists, we are less accustomed, than in some other religious connections, to pay an inordinate deference to the men of other times, it is not because we are incapable of estimating their virtues, or because we are insensible of the honour of claiming spiritual kindred with the mighty dead. "If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof to boast" of those who have partaken of his religious sympathies in a by-gone age, I am bold to say, that the Nonconformist who luxuriates in the records of the past, will have no cause to blush for the fame of his ecclesiastical ancestry. Could we ever stake the credit of our nonconformity upon the virtue of a name, or of a long succession of names, we might meekly brave a comparison of our claims with those of any other body of professing Christians. This, however, is the last ground which, as Nonconformists, we are disposed to take. The greatest men may be in error; and even if it were not so, it may be that we are their unworthy successors. We can be satisfied with nothing post-apostolic, as a ground of religious belief, or as a rule of ecclesiastical practice. If our principles are not to be found in the New Testament, they are not worth professing; and all the authorities by which we might try to prop them up must fail, in the great battle of truth, which is yet to be fought, upon the simple platform of the Holy Scriptures. I feel no hesitation, however, in affirming, even in this stronghold of patristic reliance, that all that is essential to the being and form of our congregationalism is obviously recognized in the apostolic writings, and in not a single instance contravened, but rather sustained, by the uninterpolated records of the age next to the apostles. Our principles, brethren, are these, that a church is a fellowship of Christian men,—that it is complete in itself, under Christ, with its bishops and deacons, that it is independent of all foreign control,—that it has the right of self-government according to the laws of the gospel, -that its members and officers are subject to its own free choice,—and that no element of human authority enters into its constitution, laws, discipline, or official equipments. Now, these simple principles, notwithstanding all the lofty pretensions which have come down to us from a remote but not primitive antiquity, are plainly and obviously deducible from the records of the New Testament; and we ask of churchmen the unimpeachable evidence, that any other principles obtained for at least 167 years of the Christian era. Sure I am that Clement of Rome recognizes no other principles. The writings of Ignatius have been so interpolated as to deprive them of the credit due to an historical document. And as it respects Justin Martyr, though living on the verge of a period fast degenerating into error and church pretension, yet he advances nothing that does not substantially harmonize with the congregationalism of the present day. We may be asked by churchmen, what became of our views of the pastoral office in the third and fourth centuries? and what of our independency, when the reign of councils and catholicism began their sway? As well might they ask, where our church principles were in the middle ages? or attempt to tie us down to the articles of Trent, or to the opinions put forth of late years in the "Tracts for the Times." Our church principles are where they always were in the writings of inspired men; and we dare not turn away from the pure, celestial fountain, to slake our thirst at the muddy streams which pour along the channel of ages of corruption and darkness. We are but little troubled when taunted by churchmen about the recency of our nonconformity in this country, though the taunt comes with an ill grace from those who have asserted partial liberty for themselves. We desire to cling to nothing in common that we are not prepared to defend upon apostolical authority; and here our oracle speaks in a distinct and definite tone, while all uninspired antiquity presents a scene of confusion, darkness, and doubt. We feel ourselves in no strict sense bound by the interpretations and understandings of catholic antiquity; nor do we for a moment admit the idea of catholic authority in this or any other age. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to these, it is because there is no light in them." With the dawning of the Reformation in this country, notwithstanding its acknowledged imperfections, arose that spirit of inquiry, and that attention to the word of God, which, with many other striking occurrences, led on first to Puritanism, and then to Nonconformity. The wrong principles embodied in the Reformation were incompatible with the supreme deference which it professed to pay to the word of God; and though we look with profound admiration at many of the men who struggled out of popish darkness into the clear light of the gospel, our homage is in some measure diminished by their lingering attachment to that human authority which had so grievously corrupted the Christian church, and which made the best of them stop short of the simple, irrefragable principle of unqualified submission to the authority of inspired men. |