Too

had patronised him had already considered it as a settled point, that he was to devote himself to the Christian ministry. 'much reliance had been placed by them on early appearances; ' and it was felt by him, that a grievous disappointment would be 'inflicted upon them, were he to decide upon a secular profession.' Ill chosen as had been the tutelage and training to which he had been consigned, it would seem that this education was bestowed upon him with a special view to his becoming a minister. Mr. Hughes was probably aware of this; for we find him, while at school, uniting with a class-mate in composing a sermon. It may be that a knowledge of the intentions of his friends operated beneficially as a moral restraint. It is evident too, that he never cast off the fear of God, and that his conscience was even scrupulously tender, although he had little or no pleasure in religious services, religion not having taken hold of his affections. In acceding, however, to the wishes and plans of others, he was not, he says, thwarting his own. Yet was he lamentably deficient in those high-toned principles and strong emotions which became' his situation and prospects'.

6

6

"Human influence, it is to be feared, wrought on me more than that which is divine. Into the religious sentiments I then embraced, and which I have never in the main forsaken, I glided imperceptibly and without a conflict. My mind was ductile, and might, in another connexion, have glided into opposite sentiments, having up to that period been almost a stranger to the points mooted among theologians, though perhaps preserving an obscure relish for the strain to which I was accustomed from my earliest years."'

This ingenuous confession, it must be recollected, is the decision of Mr. Hughes's severe and rigorous judgement in riper years. It is not to be supposed,' his Biographer remarks, from the high-toned piety and shrewd discernment of the parties to 'whose judgement his case was submitted, that they would unani'mously have decided in favour of the future course he was to pursue, had there not been about him undoubted marks of ge'nuine piety, uprightness of intention, and determination to excel.' We are ready to admit this in the case of Mr. Hughes, injudicious as was the conduct of these friends; but it is certain that parties as pious and as discerning have often made great mistakes in encouraging the chosen objects of their patronage to enter the ministry, unwilling to have their designs frustrated, or to abandon the hopes raised by the individual, when an impartial judgement would have led to an opposite decision. A young man who finds himself destined by his friends for the sacred profession, with no other course open to him, is placed in circumstances of a very trying nature. If he is of an easy temper, there is no small danger of his assuming his own fitness for the office, or, if he has any scruples on that head, of his throwing off the responsibility

upon his advisers, and becoming the professional religionist in his feelings. If he be of a more independent and aspiring mind, he may revolt against the service to which he is compelled to devote himself, as intolerable drudgery. Too many individuals have been driven into the ministry by circumstances, who might seem to have made choice of it. On the other hand, the anxiety to guard against this evil, may have led parents into the opposite extreme, of not shaping the education of their children with any view to their future course of life, and suffering it to be determined by chance what profession or trade they may afterwards fall into. Surely education ought not to be without design, although the result ought to be viewed as contingent. In Mr. Hughes's case, the double mistake seems to have been committed, of predetermining his future profession, and educating him into unfitness for it. Happily, his early impressions were never obliterated, and a special Providence watched over the widow's son. 'God did not utterly forsake me at Rivington,' is his pious remark; and to the secret tuition of the Divine Spirit, the preservation of the spark that had been kindled in his infant mind, must be attributed.

Mr. Hughes's father, though a member of Tottenham-court chapel, was a Baptist in judgement; and his mother was a member of the church in Eagle-street, then under the pastoral care of Dr. Gifford. 'I am not sure,' he says, 'that I was provided with more solid reasons for joining a similar connexion.' He was baptized by his friend and patron, Dr. Stennett, pastor of the Baptist church in Little Wild Street, and a Sabbatarian close' communionist.' An interesting portrait of this truly good man is supplied by Mr. Hughes himself.

“He had received a respectable education, and was, I believe, the completest gentleman in the whole denomination of Baptists. Indeed, his manners were courtly, a kind of heir-loom well conveyed from his father and grandfather, who had moved more than himself within the precincts of royalty. The effects of the French revolution on the minds of many warm theorists in England excited his apprehensions and displeasure; especially when he traced them in the circle of those whom he had been accustomed to regard as Christian friends. His congregation was rather select than numerous. His sermons, which he

usually read, were judicious, clear, unaffected, and practically evangelical; while his soft and for the most part plaintive delivery exemplified Quintilian's cantus obscurior in a way which added much to the interest of all that he uttered.

"He resided, during the latter part of his life, at Muswell Hill, where his friends, in succession, formed many an admiring and delightful levee, welcomed by one who was uniformly hospitable, pious, and entertaining. Among his frequent guests, was the celebrated John Howard, whom I have often seen in attendance on his ministry, and with whom I should have often been a fellow communicant, had the church in Wild Street admitted Pædobaptists to the sacramental

table. The texture of Dr. Stennett's understanding, like that of his heart, was sound. But he might have said,

"Sectantem lenia nervi
Deficiunt animique."

6

"He had but a modicum of imagination, nor did he pretend to be original or profound. Yet what he published on Personal Religion,' and on The Parable of the Sower,' affords a specimen of talents adapted to convey sacred instructions in a correct, neat, and engaging style. On the whole, he eminently adorned his profession, and when he died, left a chasm in the connection which has never been filled up.

"He belonged to the Trust founded by Dr. John Ward, formerly one of the Gresham College Professors, who bequeathed a sum for the maintenance and education of two persons, chosen, not exclusively, but by preference, from among the Baptists, and who were to be taught, if requisite, first in some English seminary; ultimately, however, in a northern college, and to be succeeded from time to time by the same number, according as suitable candidates might apply. The determination might be to the pursuits either of a preacher or a tutor. Provision is made in the will for continuing to the students, the first year after completing their studies, the allowance assigned any one year previously." pp. 33-35.

By the advice and influence of his friends, Mr. Hughes, in the course of a few months after his public profession of religion, was placed as a theological student, upon Dr. Ward's trust, in the Baptist Academy at Broadmead, Bristol, then under the presidency of Dr. Caleb Evans. That academy, notwithstanding the high respectability of the tutors, was at that time and for many years afterwards, deficient, both in its literary and its theological departments, in system and in stimulants.

66

"Slender," says Mr. Hughes, as was my own stock of erudition upon joining the academic groupe at Bristol, I found only two individuals, during a three years' residence, whose classical attainments were superior to my own. This had the unhappy effect of slackening my application, so that I quitted the place without any material improvement. Not having completed my sixteenth year at the commencement of my course, and having been little conversant with men calculated to unfold and invigorate the intellect, I could not but exhibit and feel a mortifying disparity between myself and the majority of my new associates. The freedom and fullness, in particular, which marked the devotional addresses of Mr. Hinton, when taking his turn at family prayer, astonished and at the same time depressed me. My embarrassment on those occasions was generally apparent and most grievous. To any thing in the shape of a disquisition I was con

* Before quitting Bristol for Scotland, Mr. Hughes enjoyed the advantage of hearing, as Dr. Evans's assistant in the ministry, Robert Hall, who also took part in the tuition of the students. See Eclectic Review, Vol. IX., 3d Series, p. 194.

VOL. XIV.-N.S.

F

sciously unequal; and my themes indicated a common and barren mind. I was, however, just capable of relishing bold and beautiful sentiments, though apt to confound a gaudy with a good style. In consequence of being so much younger than the majority of those around me, I was rarely complimented with the kind notice which invites a person to take part in a critical conference, though it were the humble part of a mere listener. Hinton and Kinghorn were men in age and in understanding, while in both I was but a boy."' pp. 39, 40.

And a boy who peculiarly stood in need of fostering encouragement, to invigorate and develop the powers he actually possessed.

The autobiographical sketch which Mr. Hughes left behind him, terminates at this point; and the chief materials of the ensuing narrative have been derived from letters and a miscellaneous diary in which he recorded most of the engagements and important occurrences of his life. In Oct. 1787, he left Bristol for Aberdeen, to prosecute his studies in King's College, where Robert Hall had completed his education, and taken his degree of master of arts, three years before. Mr. Hughes's conduct during the whole period of his residence in Scotland, appears to have been in the highest degree consistent and exemplary; and though humiliating confessions of neglect and idleness occur in his journal, they are disproved by the registry of the authors he read, and the severity of the rules by which he bound himself. For the pursuits of mathematical science, he had no taste; but, for the beauties of Greek and Roman literature, he had a keen relish, and he continued through life to retain his fondness for the ancient classics, especially the philosophical works of Cicero. To this circumstance may be ascribed, in part, that 'fastidious'ness of diction' for which he afterwards became so remarkable. The minute attention which he evinced, from this early period, to accuracy and propriety of expression, characterised his later efforts; and often led him to sacrifice perspicuity and force to the elegant indirectness which he had learned from the Roman

orator.

Whether from the slenderness of his means, from previous 'habits, or from a conscientious feeling,' does not appear, but Mr. Hughes is stated to have practised at Aberdeen an abstemiousness in his diet, which operated injuriously on his health and the tone of his mind. A spirit of dejection pervades his diary; and it would seem that he felt discouraged at finding himself continually thwarted or unsuccessful in his resolutions and attempts to arrive at eminence, or to realize his own ideas of excellence. In April 1789, he re-visited England. On the voyage, notwithstanding sea-sickness, we find him engaged on board in preaching to some soldiers and the crew, and in reading to the passengers. During his stay in the metropolis, he first

heard the Rev. Mr. Jay, of Bath, then a very young man, and 'became so enamoured' of his preaching, as to attend exclusively upon his ministry during the term of Mr. Jay's residence in London. In company with his friend Mr. Holloway, the engraver, Mr. Hughes visited a sunday-school while he was in England, and was so struck with the scene, that he resolved to form something like it upon his return to the North. Nor had he been long in Aberdeen before he put in practice this resolution. He gathered a group of children, formed rules for their instruction on the sabbath, and indefatigably persevered in acting upon them. Along with the children, whose numbers continually increased, the parents were invited to attend, and strangers were admitted as visitors.

These increased at length to the number of between two and three hundred; and a kind of sermon was addressed to the whole, generally by our friend, at the close of the school. The spectacle was so far novel at that time and place as to excite marked attention. Whispers were circulated respecting him and his motives, for this imagined assumption in the introduction of new modes of usefulness. Some insinuated that he was secretly paid for his labour; in reference to

which he says: "Blessed be God, I can imprecate ruin upon myself, if I ever once thought of pecuniary advantage. Let my labour be as free as the Gospel?" It was the very motto he adopted afterwards for his conduct on a much larger and more splendid scale. So tenacious was he at this time of this principle, that, when one of the poor mothers of the children offered him, from the overflowing gratitude of her heart, a few peats as a recompense, he persisted, to her great pain and mortification, in the stedfast refusal. Indeed, his own savings appear to have been devoted to the purchase of books for the use of his scholars. ... His farewell of the children for the recess was accompanied with lamentation and weeping on the part both of them and their parents, and, on his own, with grateful thanksgivings and tender regrets. pp. 73, 4.

This benevolent and disinterested effort on the part of the young student, must be viewed as a very characteristic indication of the qualities by which Mr. Hughes was afterwards to be distinguished: a quiet zeal, steady perseverance, condescension to the young, kindness to the poor, and unimpeachable purity of motive in his labours of love, were prominent traits in his character. In March, 1790, Mr. Hughes took his degree of M.A. He remained at Aberdeen till the close of the autumn, and then proceeded to Edinburgh, where he spent a session. He subsequently returned to Aberdeen, where he had formed some strong attachments of friendship, and remained there for five months. In 1791, he returned to London, and, after preaching a trial sermon before the pastor and members of the church at Wild Street, was unanimously called to the work of the ministry,'