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occurred for the developement | soon directed towards him. At

the request of the church at Kimbolton, he spent some weeks with them, to their great satisfaction. At the expiration of this engagement, they became exceedingly solicitous that his labours should be continued among them; and, finding that he had scruples, in

on the open plan, the members of the church, who were Independents, hoping to obviate this difficulty, voluntarily proposed to commune elsewhere. Fearing, however, that he should not ultimately be happy in this station, he felt it to be his duty to decline their pressing invitation.

of those talents with which the great Head of the church had distinguished him. The church, to which he was now related, held a meeting on the Lord's-day morning, previous to the public service; when, besides the more ordinary exercises of social worship, certain individuals, sup-consequence of the church being posed to possess some ability for edifying their brethren, by endeavouring to explain the scriptures, were encouraged to communicate their views of any passage which might have particularly engaged their attention. At these meetings, Mr. Steevens having been repeatedly heard in prayer with more than usual satisfaction, he was requested to address the friends from some portion of divine truth. With such solicitation he several times complied; and, on one of these occasions, it was contrived that his pastor, unknown to him, should be one of his hearers: the consequence was, Mr. Macgowan concurred in opinion with other judicious persons, that the gifts of Mr. Steevens entitled him to more public notice; and, at a following church meeting, the case was regularly introduced. Mr. Steevens was now called upon to speak a certain number of times in the presence of the church, after which he was unanimously sanctioned as a public teacher of Christianity; and affectionately commended to the direction of divine Providence. Thus he was assisted, by honour-when he should have attended to able gradations, in 1773, to as- this engagement, that he would cend the pulpit, and commence spend a month with them also. an important career, which was only to terminate with his life.

His occasional services were well received, both in London and the country; and the attention of several destitute churches was

It is remarkable of this church, that, at the time they were visited by Mr. Steevens, they had been eleven years destitute of a pastor; nor had they, during the whole of that period, been unanimous in the choice of any individual till he was introduced to their notice, and, after his rejection of their call, they remained eleven years more before they were settled with a minister !

Scarcely had Mr. Steevens returned from Kimbolton, when he received, by the same post, two invitations; one from Colchester, and another from Olney. Being at the residence of a friend at the time these letters came to hand, that from Colchester was immediately forwarded to him; this circumstance determined him to visit Essex first, at the same time promising the friends at Olney,

At the close of this year (1773) he preached his first sermon at Colchester, from Psalm ci. 1, "I will sing of mercy and judgment; unto thee, O Lord, will I sing." During his stay, on this occasion,

a powerful impression was made by his ministry; but it now became necessary that Olney should participate in his services. While there, he was affectionately and unanimously solicited to renew his labours at Colchester, with a view to the pastoral office. After much serious thought, in concurrence with the judgment of his pastor, and the church with which he stood connected, the friends at Colchester had the happiness to find that his conclusion was favourable to their wishes; and they piously acknowledged it as an answer to their prayers. His public ordination took place at Colchester, on the 17th of August, 1774.

the attack; and, though ultimately he so far recovered as to be seldom necessitated to suspend the exercise of his ministry, yet by these repeated shocks his constitution was so undermined, that his anticipations of ascending the pulpit were frequently oppressive; and, notwithstanding when thus engaged, he was usually favoured to rise so superior to his fears and his feelings, that his hearers drew conclusions concerning his health directly contrary to fact, yet his exertions in public were often succeeded by distressing debility.

It is, therefore, obvious, that however close may be the connection between body and mind, the latter, in many instances, is known to operate vigorously, while the former is perceptibly yielding to the slow, but certain

For twenty-eight years he laboured in that part of the Redeemer's kingdom, and was "an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spi-progress of decay. This fact rit, in faith, in purity." During will be farther exemplified by the these years, though, like his bre- relation of the following circumthren, he was called to witness stance, in which, also, we have some affecting changes, he was, an opportunity of taking a comnevertheless, privileged, in no in- parative view of talent and inteconsiderable degree, to rejoice in grity. In 1793, a friend being the enlargement of Zion. In the for some months on a visit at course of his ministry, one hun- Colchester, and having attended dred and sixty-nine persons the ministry of Mr. Steevens with were baptized, and added to the considerable interest, ventured to church and he had the pleasure remark, that the qualifications of of seeing the limits of the meet- Mr. Steevens were equal to a staing-house extended to double tion much superior to that which their original dimensions; which he occupied. This suggestion the increased state of the church getting into circulation, occasionand congregation had made indis-ed much anxiety in the minds of pensably necessary. About four those who were warmly attached years after his settlement, Mr. to their pastor, lest he should be Steevens was visited by a malig- influenced to remove from them. nant fever, which, in the opinion That nothing might be wanting of his physician, left but a slen- on his part to subdue this imder hope of his continuance. Af-pression, and tranquillize the ter, however, he had been con- minds of his friends, he delivered fined from his public duties seven a sermon from 2 Cor. vii. 3, "For weeks, he gradually revived; I have said before, that ye are in but, within fourteen months, the our hearts to die and live with distemper returned four times to you."

Many discouragements attend- to his ministry, he remarked, ed the last years of Mr. Stee- "The doctrine which I have vens's ministry; in the patient preached, is that by which I can enduring of which, the Christian die." Not long before his dissominister appeared to great advan-lution, he repeated,

"Yet a season, and you know
Happy entrance shall be given;
All our sorrows left below,
And earth exchang'd for heaven.”

Mr. Steevens had no dear children, whose future conflicts in life might have interfered with the serenity of his dying hours; they having, in the very first stage of infancy, become his precursors to the heavenly inheritance. But there was one, who, for many years, by a sympathy which generously divides the sum of human wo, and an affectionate attention to whatever might economize the distribution of earthly enjoyment, had become entitled to that tender solicitude which seemed to be interwoven with his being, and which he could not always restrain within those ap

tage. Such exercises, however, were ill adapted to diminish the effect of those bodily infirmities, under the oppressive weight of which nature was already beginning to sink. But in the close of the year 1801, an event took place which appears to have been the immediate occasion of his removal. Returning from visiting one of his friends, in passing through an avenue of the town, the weather being frosty, he met with a severe fall. At first, no serious consequences were apprehended; shortly after, however, it became but too evident that an injury was sustained, which his impaired state of health left little hope of his being able to surmount. By this occurrence, it was the will of divine Providence to terminate the pub-proved limits prescribed by his lic services of Mr. Steevens: but let us pay, at least, a hasty visit to his retirement, where, for nearly six months previous to his decease, he languished, calmly waiting the arrival of that moment when he was to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord. The consideration of death, which has so often appalled minds the most powerful, and piety the most unsuspected, had, not infrequently, been contemplated by Mr. Steevens with feelings strongly allied to dismay.grace, he commended the people It was reserved for him, in this near approach to the solemn transition from time to eternity, to speak of it with more than composure. "I know," said he, "whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day." Alluding

better judgment. Such, however, was now the happy submission of his mind, that, calling Mrs. Steevens to him, he said, " My dear, I can now leave you without anxiety in the hands of my covenant God and Father." At another time he thus addressed her: "When I came to Colchester, I commenced with mercy and judgment, and with that I die: but mercy has greatly prevailed." In one of his last audible addresses at the throne of

of his charge to God, in the most impressive and appropriate language.

The time of his departure was now at hand; all that skill and kindness could suggest had been attempted; but at length disease triumphed over every palliative, and on the eleventh of June,

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1802, in the fifty-seventh year of | The writer has heard both his age, Mr. Steevens, almost un-churchmen and dissenters proobserved by those who attended nounce the name of Steevens, in a him, " languished into life." On manner that strikingly marked the eighteenth, he was interred the veneration in which they held in the ground adjoining the meet-it. The only sermon he could ing house, when ministers of se-be prevailed upon to publish, was veral denominations were present. delivered, a few years before his The address at the grave was de- death, at Coggeshall, at the livered by the Rev. Giles Hobbs; forming of the Baptist Essex Aswho, for a long period, had been sociation; the text was from the pastor of the independent Daniel, xii. 4, "Many shall run church at Colchester. He was to and fro, and knowledge shall the senior of Mr. Steevens, but be increased." He took consihad, notwithstanding, for several derable pleasure in versifying, years attended his weekly lecture. and left, in manuscript, nearly In paying this final tribute of two thousand hymns, written on a esteem to his departed friend, he great variety of subjects. Some remarked, "I have known him of these have recently appeared nearly thirty years, and never in a selection published by the knew any thing but good of him." | Rev. J. Upton, of London. After the interment, the Rev. In closing this brief account, Zenas Trivett, of Longham, the we hope it will not be forgotten, highly respected friend of the that, while endeavouring to disdeceased, preached the funeral charge a debt which has been sermon from the following text, long due to departed excellence, which Mr. Steevens had selected: an object has been contemplated "And the Lord make you to in- far more important than that of crease and abound in love one panegyrizing an individual, who toward another, and toward all would have been among the foremen, even as we do toward you; most to adopt the confession of to the end he may stablish your the apostle," I know that in me hearts unblamable in holiness (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no | before God, even our Father, at good thing." Indeed, to insert the coming of our Lord Jesus in a monthly pamphlet, the conChrist, with all his saints. For | temporary names of Fuller,

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what is our hope, or joy, or crown | Sutcliff, and Steevens, which, by of rejoicing? Are not even ye in an immutable purpose, have been the presence of our Lord Jesus inscribed in that imperishable Christ at his coming? For ye are volume, our glory and joy." 1 Thess. iii. 12, 13, and ii, 19, 20.

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which contains the names of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, can be no flattering The removal of Mr. Steevens distinction: the insertion may was felt and lamented in no ordi- give interest to the page where nary degree: many of the inha they are introduced; but on bitants of Colchester, who were them, whose eminence is secured not decidedly serious, revered his beyond the influence of human character; but the truly pious, opinion, it can confer nothing. justly appreciating his value, In short, to edify the pious, to could not but exclaim, 66 My fa- | strengthen the languid, to anither, my father, the chariot of mate the discouraged, and to stiIsrael, and the horsemen thereof. " | mulate the negligent, are among

The Doctor imagined himself dangerously ill, at a friend's house

the ends proposed by these bio- | sublime happiness of the heavengraphical outlines. But, most of ly world. This, and other eonall, in surveying the life of a god-versation of the same kind, proly pastor, an opportunity is af- bably occasioned the following forded of admiring the fidelity of dream. him who said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." It is to the perpetuat-in ed accomplishment of this divine declaration, we must trace the existence and successful exercise of every ministerial qualification --it is to the same unfailing source must be attributed the uninterrupted succession of Christian teachers, whose labours have so essentially served the best interests of their fellow-men-it is to the performance of this promise the church is indebted for its preservation and enlargement; and, resting our calculation on the certainty of its fulfilment in each subsequent period of time, we confidently expect the universal diffusion of revealed truth, accompanied with an energy that shall triumph over the most determined form of resistance, till the operation of heavenly principles be experienced in every heart, and the praises of Jehovah ascend from every tongue.

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London, and after lying in this state some hours, he thought his soul left the body, and took its flight in some kind of fine vehicle, which, though very different from the gross body it had just quitted, was still material. He pursued his course through the air, expecting some celestial messenger to direct him, till he was at some distance from the city; when turning back and viewing the town, he could not forbear saying to himself, "How vain and trifling do those affairs, in which the inhabitants of this place are so eagerly employed, appear to me, a separate spirit." At length, as he was still continuing his progress, and though without any certain direction, yet easy and happy in the thoughts of the universal providence and government of God, which extends alike to all states and worlds, he was met by one who told him, he was sent to conduct him to the place appointed for his abode: from whence he concluded, that it could be no other than an an

gel, though, as he thought, he appeared under the form of an elderly man. They went accordingly on together, till they came within sight of a large, spacious building, which had the air of a

THE Doctor, and Dr. Clark, of St. Albans, had been conversing together in the evening, upon the nature of the sepa-palace. rate state, and the probability that the scenes, on which the soul would enter upon its first leaving the body, would bear some resemblance to those with which it had been conversant while on earth; that it might, by degrees, be prepared for the more

Upon his inquiring what it was, his guide told him, it was the place assigned him for his residence at present. Upon which the Doctor observed, that he remembered he had read, while on earth, that" Eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart conceived, what God had laid up

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