everything of a disputable nature from his discourses. This was supposed to have arisen partly from temperament, and partly from a persuasion that, by drawing hearers of different opinions to his services, he could most successfully fulfil his pulpit duties. The same course was adopted by many of the liberal Presbyterian ministers of his day, and they did, no doubt, for a season, keep together elements that were dissimilar, and which a fearless preacher like Mr. MADGE would be sure to separate. But numbers, it has been well said, are not always strength, and when united only by the feeble bond of private influence, they are scattered when that influence is withdrawn. It was so at Norwich. Several members of the Established Church were among the hearers of Mr. HOUGHTON, who were disturbed and offended by allusions to debated points in religion by his colleague; and they quitted the congregation when Mr. HOUGHTON left it.*

Unitarianism was first brought prominently into the pulpit at Norwich by Mr. MADGE, and it must have seriously troubled

History of the Octagon Chapel, Norwich, by JOHN and EDWARD TAYLOR, with an Introduction by Rev. J. CROMPTON, M.A.— Pp. 57-8.

Mr. HOUGHTON, though I am assured it never interfered with the cordial feeling which subsisted between them, and that they agreed to differ in their modes of operation, with uninterrupted cordiality and kindness.

The congregation assembling in the Octagon Chapel at Norwich, when Mr. MADGE went to it, was of considerable influence, from the the social position and attainments of many of its members. The city was then the abode of men and women who were well known for their literary and scientific tastes and pursuits, with whom he mingled freely in the freshness and vigour of his early manhood; and he was doubtless stimulated to greater mental effort by the recollection of what would be requisite in ministrations suited to their wants. The Rev. JOHN KENRICK expresses his conviction, in a communication which I have had from him, that Mr. MADGE's powers as a preacher were called forth and fully developed by the demands made upon him at the Octagon Chapel. He had there," Mr. KENRICK observes, "to address an audience perhaps the most intellectual in our denomination. It will hardly be believed by those who have been charmed by his delivery in later

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years that when he was a student at Exeter, Mr. BRETLAND, himself an accomplished elocutionist, pronounced that he never would make a public speaker. The effect of his harmonious voice was impaired by a rapidity of utterance which he soon learned to correct after he became a preacher."

Mr. MADGE was himself accustomed to relate an amusing anecdote respecting this habit, which, by care and effort, he so completely surmounted. He had been officiating somewhere, in his early preaching days, and had chosen as his text, the words from the prophet Isaiah, "My people do not consider." When he left the pulpit, an elderly gentleman spoke to him of his sermon, and shaking him kindly by the hand, remarked, "My young friend, you do not give us time to consider.”

From the first Mr. MADGE was much admired as a preacher at Norwich, and the views of Christianity which he held with firmness himself, and explained to others with so much clearness and reverence, were most acceptable to the great majority of his hearers.

In the year 1812 he delivered a sermon on the Salvation of Man by the Free Grace of God in Christ, which was printed at the