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THE

EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE

AND

MISSIONARY CHRONICLE.

FOR DECEMBER, 1832.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. JOSEPH KINGHORN,

OF NORWICH.

THE pages of our Magazine having been always devoted to the interests of vital religion, without reference to sect or party, it is with much pleasure we lay before our readers a sketch of the life and character of a distinguished minister of the Anti-pædobaptist denomination, "who being dead yet speaketh." And though we differed widely from him in his views of strict communion, yet, respect ing most highly his Christian virtues and ministerial attainments, we rejoice to testify our love to his memory, by giving publicity to the following particulars, selected from the funeral sermon, preached by the Rev. John Alexander, on occasion of his death.

"The Rev. Joseph Kinghorn, the youngest child of David and Elizabeth Kinghorn, appears to have been born in Newcastle, Northumberland, on the 17th of January, 1766. His father was, from about four years after the birth of his son, pastor of a small congregation of Baptists in Bishop Burton, in Yorkshire, where he remained till he and his venerable partner came

VOL. X.

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to reside with him in this city. Their son was in early life engaged in the employment of Messrs. Walker, Fishwick, and Co., of Newcastle, manufacturers of white lead; and, whilst there, he became a member of the Baptist church. His qualifications for public usefulness were soon recognized by his brethren, with whose concurrence he was sent, at the joint expense of Mr. Ward and Mr. Fishwick, to enter on a course of study in the Bristol Academy, under the care of Dr. Caleb Evans, the divinity tutor, and of the Rev. Mr. Newton, the classical tutor, who was succeeded in that office by the Rev. Robert Hall, a short time before Mr. Kinghorn left the academy.

"At the close of his studies, Mr. Kinghorn visited Fairford, in Gloucestershire, and preached there for some time, as a candidate for the pastoral office; but was prevented from settling among them by an unwarrantable suspicion, entertained by some of the people, respecting his orthodoxy, which appears to have harassed his mind

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and injured his health. At that time his friend, Mr. Fishwick, happened to be in Norwich on business; and, having been informed that the church here was destitute of a pastor, he warmly recommended his young friend as a candidate; in consequence of which, an invitation was sent from the church to Mr. Kinghorn, requesting his services for a few weeks; and he arrived in Norwich on the 28th of March, 1789, and preached his first sermon there on the following Lord's day, March 29th, from Romans v. 10: For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.'

"Mr. Kinghorn's immediate predecessor at Norwich was the Rev. Rees David, who laboured with fidelity and usefulness for eleven years, when he was cut off by a fever, in the February of 1788. The high degree of regard which Mr. David enjoyed, from the integrity of his character, his zeal for the cause of religion and of civil and religious liberty, and from the energy and power of his preaching, rendered it no small difficulty to obtain a successor acceptable to the destitute church; and though a minister of considerable talents had been supplying the vacant pulpit for some months after Mr. David's death, yet opinions respecting him were so much divided, as to bring the congregation into a very uncomfortable state. It was at this crisis that Mr. Kinghorn arrived; and though much enfeebled and distressed when he came, yet, in the society of the late Mr. and Mrs. William Wilkin, he found the consolations of a sincere and delicate friendship; and, by frequent visits to their country residence, he soon regained the tone both of his body and mind. In after life, he testi

fied his sense of obligation to their kindness, by accepting the charge of their young and orphan children, over whom he watched with affectionate and parental care.

"After having preached in Norwich for several Sabbaths, he received an invitation from the church to become its pastor, which he accepted in January, 1790. On the 20th of the following May, he was ordained to the pastoral office; on which occasion the Rev. Zenas Trivett commenced the service; his father, the Rev. David Kinghorn, gave the charge, from 1 Tim. iv. 13; Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine;' and the Rev. Mr. Richards, of Lynn, preached the sermon to the church and congregation.

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"Under his ministry, the congregation having increased in numbers and respectability, it was determined to pull down the old meeting-house; and sums of money, sufficient for the erection of a new place, having been liberally subscribed by the people, the present place of worship was erected, and opened for divine worship on Thursday, June the 25th, 1812; on which interesting occasion, Mr. Kinghorn preached in the morning from Ps. xc. 17; and the Rev. William Hull, in the evening, from Ps. xcv. 1-3."

Speaking of Mr. K.'s ministry, Mr. Alexander thus expresses himself: It was deeply impressive. It was full of thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.' It exhibited all the force of his intellect, combined with all the fervour of his heart; so that every sermon which he preached resembled 'the sea of glass which was mingled with fire.' The impressive and spirit-stirring influence which his preaching was calculated to produce, may, however, be traced to a variety of circumstances. For instance, he endeavoured to stir up

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your minds by the plain and practical character of his discourses. Persons who live at a distance, and who judge of Mr. Kinghorn merely by his literary fame, or by his controversial writings, may perhaps suppose that his sermons were learned disquisitions and doubtful disputations. This was by no means the case; and though he could pear, and on suitable occasions did appear, as the profound scholar, and the skilful reasoner, yet, however he may be estimated elsewhere, by those who knew him not, those who have been accustomed to associate with him in this city, and to sit under his ministry, knew him as the plain and practical preacher of the gospel-whose dress, and domestic economy, and manners in the parlour and in the pulpit, were simple and unostentatious, and whose one object it was to win souls to Jesus Christ. It is the duty of the Christian minister,' and I am quoting his own words, 'to exert himself, as far as he is able, that what he says may be intelligible and plain; and that, from the manner in which he delivers it, it may be impressive.'* He endeavoured to stir up your minds also, by the point and force with which he directed his appeals to your consciences and hearts; so that he met you at every turn, he compassed your path at every step, he pursued you into every avenue, and it seemed impossible to escape from his close and searching admonitions. His object was not to polish his style so as to gain your admiration and japplause he had

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See "Two Sermons, addressed principally to the students of the two Baptist Academies at Stepney and Bristol," entitled, "Advice and Encouragement to Young Ministers ;" and "The substance of a Sermon preached at Bradford," entitled, "Practical Cautions to Students and Young Ministers;" -all of which are well worthy the attentive perusal of students and of young ministers of every denomination.

no taste for that; but to point every sentence till it became like a twoedged sword, quick and powerful, which pierced to the dividing asunder of soul and body, and discerned the very thoughts and intents of your hearts. He endeavoured, also, to stir up your minds by the earnestness and impressiveness of his manner. Though he was with you during a longer time than Moses was with the Israelites in the wilderness, yet his eye was not dim, nor was his natural force abated.' He retained, even to old age, much of the vigour and vivacity of his youth; and those who have had the opportunity of comparing together the earlier and the later periods of his ministry, are of opinion, that the sermons of the last few years were more earnestly and impressively delivered, than even those which preceded. He no doubt felt increasingly the value of the gospel, as pel, as a source of holiness and happiness on earth, and as revealing and bestowing a life of eternal blessedness in heaven; and, therefore, in proclaiming that gospel to you, he became increasingly earnest and fervent, both in his feelings and in his manner. His heart was anointed with a holy unction, which diffused its fragrance over all his feelings and his words, and his eyes often became fountains of tears,' when he spoke of the hopes which the gospel inspires, and when he told the enemies of the cross that their end was destruction. And when, on such occasions, his voice broke (and sometimes it did with tremulous impressiveness), a burst of holy eloquence was sure to follow, which thrilled, and subdued, and overwhelmed. But we must not omit to notice, that he endeavoured to stir up your minds by the simplicity and piety of his life. And without this, his talents, his literature, and his eloquence, would have been but

of little avail; for all his public labours would have been neutralized by his practical inconsistencies. But we all knew him, and venerated him, as a man of God. The doctrines which he preached in the pulpit were written in his life; and he was not only a preacher of Christ to his own congregation, but also ' an epistle of Christ known and read of all men.' In the course of his religious experience, he had indeed passed through paths of darkness, and had contended with doubts and difficulties, such as but few Christians are called to endure. But, through the mercy of God, they served ultimately only to strengthen his faith and to confirm his hope-they gave him the tongue of the learned, so that he knew how to speak a word in season to him that was weary'-and they chastened and humbled his mind under a deep conviction of human ignorance and imperfection, and of the necessity and value of that grace without which we are nothing, and can do nothing. Under the influence of that all-sufficient grace, his own character was formed, and his own mind was excited, so that he was enabled to stir you up by his holy example, as well as by the simplicity, and point, and impressiveness of his preaching, that you might have these things always in your remembrance.

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"Though his mind was highly speculative, though his curiosity was as young and prying at sixty as at twenty, and though, through desire, he sought and intermeddled with all wisdom,' yet how steady, and straight-forward, and persevering, was the course which he pursued! Whilst many by whom he was surrounded have diverged, some to the right hand, and others to the left, he kept on the even tenor of his way-professing neither to be a dreamer nor an inter

preter of dreams, neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but a disciple and a minister of Jesus Christ, whose duty it was to give himself wholly to the great things of the gospel, and to endeavour to pluck sinners as brands from the burning.

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"His decease had been mercifully preceded by a long life of health and labour, and more than sixty-six years have elapsed from his birth to his departure. Some of the former of those years were connected with occasional attacks of sickness, which sometimes led him to expect an early grave; so that, at the time of his ordination, upwards of forty years ago, he said to his father, You are come to ordain a dying man;' and, subsequently to that period, he was once visited with a severe and alarming illness. Nor is it improbable that these occasional admonitions of his mortality were the means, under the blessing of God, of producing much of that seriousness of spirit by which his mind was pervaded. Still, his was a life of comparative health; and when I visited him, during the week in which he died, he told me that, till then, he had not been kept out of his pulpit by illness for a single Sabbath, during a period of twenty-eight years. His last illness, as you are aware, was confined to one short week. It commenced on the evening of Saturday, August 25th, and concluded in his death, on the evening of the Saturday following; yet it is probable that the fever which at last consumed him had, for some time previously, been accumulating its exhausting fires. His illness was so short, and of such a nature, as to afford scarcely any opportunities of conversation with him, in order to ascertain the state of his mind; indeed, those around him little expected that death was so near at hand. This, however, is a circumstance on which we reflect with no

feelings of anxiety. His soul, and all its eternal interests, had long been committed to the Saviour. For him to live had been Christ; for him to die was gain. During nearly twelve hours before his departure, he was apparently inattentive to every surrounding object. His body and his mind seemed to be in a state of perfect peace. Not a word was spoken-not a limb stirred-not a symptom of pain appeared. The tide of life gently and silently ebbed away, till at length his breathing ceased, and his countenance faded into the paleness of death,

'Calm and unruffled as a summer's sea, When not a breath of wind flies o'er its surface.'

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earthly friends-it has terminated a life to which he naturally and instinctively clung; but it has not terminated the existence of his spirit, nor its communion with God, nor its conformity to his image, nor its joy in the light of his countenance. O no! He is absent from the body, but he is present with the Lord. He is gone to the spirits of the just made perfect. He has renewed his communion with many of the members of his church, which death had for a while suspended. He is with Watts, and Doddridge, and Fuller, and Ward, and Hall, and the general assembly and church of the first-born' in those eelestial mansions, where all is perfection, and harmony, and love. He is in the pursuit of knowledge with ampler capacities and ampler means than any he possessed on earth. And, above all, he is with Christ-surrounded by the light and glory of his presence-sitting at his feet to receive knowledge and joy from his instructions, and deriving, from the fountain of his mercy, degrees of happiness as large as his desires, and as lasting as his immortality."

A MEDITATION ON AFFLICTION.

"IN the day of adversity consider!" O my soul, what a scene opens to thy view! Almost every one of thy friends is afflicted, either in his person, or his family. One has lost the wife of his bosom, another has been bereaved of a beloved child, and a third has been on the borders of the grave. Some have tasted the bitter cup, and others have drank it to the very dregs-it is scarcely ever out of their hands. The physician is weekly at their door their servant is seen at the apothecary's almost daily: yet the only wise God, our Saviour, has always some merciful intentions in these heavy trials. He smites us that we may turn to him: he puts us into the furnace that we may be purified. And shall I permit so solemn a

visitation to pass away unimproved? God forbid! O help me, merciful Father, to extract honey from this bitter flower!

Now we find how blessed it is to have the consolations of religion; indeed, these are blessings at all times, but particularly so when heart and flesh fail, when nature sinks, when sickness prevails, when friends die; for affliction is not joyous, but grievous. A stoical apathy to my own distress and the distresses of my neighbours will produce no benefit. It will not keep off the stroke, nor remove the effects of it. Religion is the only true balm. I clearly see that the events which do not make me feel seldom do me good--but now I feel, and feel deeply: Lord, let it be a chastened feeling; let it be a submissive feeling;

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