deepened both by observing the havoc which pestilence and civil war have lately made in France, and by remembering the circumstances of extreme peril into which the peace of our own country was brought a very few weeks ago.

The people at large will manifest their joy by illuminations and feasts; but are there not some other more permanent and beneficial actions within our power, by which we may evince our gratitude to God, who has so wonderfully answered our prayers and interposed for our help? Let us look round our respective localities, and consider in what way we can most effectually promote the best interests of our neighbours. Nothing is comparable to instruction, moral and religious instruction; and the larger the measure of civil liberty which a nation enjoys, the more important it becomes that the population should have their minds imbued with those principles of justice, truth, benevolence, and peace, which the Holy Scriptures inculcate. Is there a populous village, then, or a district of a town, where a place of worship is urgently required? Let the Christians who live near that neglected spot unite in a benevolent confederation for the purpose of supplying the deficiency Or, is a school, a Sabbath school, a British school, or an infant school, still more urgently needed, let neighbouring Christians resolve to supply the desideratum. Let an effort of uncommon generosity be made, proportioned to the greatness of the occasion. Has such an occasion ever occurred in England since the year 1688? Nay, the present is in one respect a more memorable occasion than was that "glorious revolution." Is it not a new thing in the history of mankind, for a government to reform itself, without external violence, or the shedding of one drop of blood? Second causes, grant, may be stated to account for the wonderful event; but these causes will not diminish the gratitude of the pious man, knowing, as he does, how completely all events are under divine controul.

Nor let any one attempt to abuse our grateful joy by reminding us of the uncertainty of all human affairs. We know it; but we contend, that as God has most remarkably interposed to deliver us from two imminent perils,and has apparently removed one of those perils farther from us than ever, it is our bounden duty loudly to praise him, and to show our gratitude by some special act of pious beneficence.

Shall those of us, who spend from one hundred to one thousand pounds a year on ourselves and families, grudge on such an occasion a donation of one, or two, or five, or ten, or twenty, or fifty, or a hun

dred pounds? And will our rich brethren grudge even a much larger grant, if it be necessary? How easily might God have permitted events to occur which would have taken from us, at a stroke, half or the whole, not of our income only, but of our property! And if we and our fellowChristians generally in Britain shall persist in allowing thousands of our neighbours to grow up in pagan ignorance, or in infidel error, God may still, in just retribution for our criminal negligence, allow "the floods of ungodly men" to break down our ramparts of law and justice, strengthened though they now are by what we may fondly deem the immoveable buttresses of constitutional reform. J. B. S. G.

June 11, 1832.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE DISSENTERS'
SCHOOL, MILL HILL.

The 24th Annual Day of this invaluable Institution, was held on Wednesday the 27th of June.

The company began to assemble at an early hour, and strolled through the beautiful grounds, enjoying the lovely prospect by which they are surrounded, until eleven o'clock, when the bell called them to assemble in the chapel; amongst whom, we observed, Messrs. J. Burnet, J. Blackburn, G. Clayton, W. Chapman, W. Ellis, J. Gunn, J. Hughes, C. S. Stewart of the United States, A. Tidman, J. Yockney, and a large number of our respected Missionaries.

The Rev. Wm. Clayton the Chaplain, read the Scriptures, and the Rev. Mr. Elliot of Devizes, offered prayer. The Rev. Joseph Berry occupied the chair till the arrival of Sir J. Key, Bart. the Lord Mayor, who presided during the recitations of the Greek, Latin, French, and English speeches, by twenty-three of the pupils.

Prizes were then distributed, and his Lordship had the pleasure of seeing his own son Mr. J. S. Key, receive a handsome volume as a prize for English composition. Official duties requiring Sir J. Key to return to London, he expressed, before he left the chair, not only the pleasure he had felt on the occasion, but also his sincere gratitude to the Directors and Tutors of the Institution, for the care they had taken of their pupils; and he could not, as a Christian parent, withhold his best thanks for their attention to the religious and moral education of their pupils, without which, he felt that all their other attainments would lose half their value.

The Rev. Dr.J. P. Smith then distributed ⚫

PARLIAMENTARY RETURN OF CHURCH RATES.

Mr. John Wilks, the member for Boston, moved in the last Parliament, for a Statement of the Monies paid for Church Rates, &c. and how expended, which has been recently laid on the table of the House of Commons, and is now printed for the use of members, under the title of "Abstract of Returns,showing the amount of Monies received and expended by the Churchwardens and Chapelwardens, from Easter, 1830, to Easter, 1831." It contains the accounts from 41 Counties in England and Wales, each county is classed by itself. To give the respective amounts under their different heads, is for general purposes unnecessary; the totals, however, are important, and are therefore classed together in the following table, as a species of account cur rent, by which it may be seen the amount that has been received-the sources from which it came, and the manner in which it has been expended:

OBITUARY NOTICE OF THE REVEREND GEORGE BURDER.

Most of our readers have learned that the above venerable man terminated his labours, and entered on his eternal rest, on Tuesday, the 29th of May, in the 80th year of his age. His funeral took place at Bunhill Fields burial-ground on Tuesday, June 5, which was attended by a numerous company of ministers and other directors of the Missionary Society and a large body of church members and private friends, who accompanied his sorrowing family to the grave. The previous service was conducted in the City Road Chapel, which was kindly lent for the occasion.

The Rev. C. Morris commenced the funeral service by reading the Scriptures. The Rev. Dr. Winter prayed, and, after singing, delivered the address, which was characterized by the Doctor's accustomed neat and judicious method; the Rev. George Collison offered prayer at the grave. The funeral sermon was preached on the following Lord's day morning, at Fetter Lane, by the Rev. Dr. Fletcher, from Jude, 21st verse, and, from the published report of that service, we extract the following biographical particulars.

The Rev. GEORGE BURDER was born in London, on the 5th of June, 1752; and, by a remarkable and memorable coincidence, the day of his burial was the eightieth anniversary of his birth. His excellent father, Mr. Henry Burder, was for many year a much-respected member and deacon of the church, Fetter Lane. His son, George, was sent at the age of about ten years to a grammarschool, where he applied himself with diligence to classical studies. On his birth-day, when only ten years of age,

The payments contained in this column are principally on account of Visitations, Fees, and of Travelling and other expenses attendant thereon.

N. B. No balance is struck, which however amounts to £17,931. 9s. nor is any account given of former balances.

It is

true the order did not require it, and the parties concerned are not disposed to supply more information on such subjects than they are compelled to do.

his father urged him very affectionately and seriously, to begin in earnest to seek the great salvation. The father of our friend had indeed to rejoice that he had not laboured or prayed in vain; for in a retrospect of that event (when he was just ten years of age) which he made long afterwards, the following reflections were found in his own writing :-" Then, 1 trust sincerely and earnestly, and, as well as I can recollect, for the first time, I poured out my soul to God, beseeching him to give me an interest in Christ, and desiring above all things to be found in him."

Having at an early age displayed a partiality for drawing, he was placed with an eminent engraver, and afterwards became a student in the Royal Academy at Somerset House. As he advanced towards maturity, he frequently heard with deep interest the preaching of the illustrious Whitefield, and the excellent Romaine. To use his own words, he be

came

fond of that sort of preaching which was commonly termed methodism; "my judgment," he says, 66 was before informed; but I found it necessary that my heart should be affected."

At the age of twenty-one he entered on business, and the prospect of success which speedily opened before him was highly encouraging; but secular pursuits were not accordant with his feelings and his wishes. He saw at that period much in the state of the country generally, and even of the church of Christ of his own denomination particularly, to excite anxiety for the moral and spiritual interests of men. Some of the descendants of the venerable nonconformists had declined from the faith and simplicity of their ancestors; and the orthodoxy of others was in too many instances cold, formal, and unproductive. A society existed at this time, not unlike the Home Missionary Society of our time as to its immediate objects and plans; and with this institution he became intimately connected, and afterwards materially promoted its interests. on doing good, he seized on all opportunities of promoting the best interests of those to whom he had access.

Intent

We now approach the period when he became a public advocate of the name which he had long honoured and loved. About the age of twenty-four he took a journey into Shropshire, and spent some time there on his father's estates. By the persuasion of a friend he was induced to preach the gospel of Christ at the house of one of his father's tenants, in' reference to which occasion the following memorandum was found: "I was much

assisted, and had far more boldness and liberty than I expected. The people were all attention; some wept much, and many were greatly moved. O Jesus, friend of sinners, make it useful: make me so happy as to hear of some turned to thee !" Thus, in simplicity and godly sincerity, and without any direct and formal preparation, he became a preacher of the gospel. But though no academic sanction had been conferred on him, he was neither ignorant nor unlettered: he had been a diligent student, though not at college; and his habits were those of constant, uniform, and systematical application. His future course proved that, whatever was the immediate source of his knowledge, he was an able minister of the New Testament, and well-instructed into the kingdom of God. On the evening of the Sahbath that followed his first exertions, finding that the house where he had preached in the morning could not contain the people, he took his station under the shadow of an oak tree, and delivered on that spot with youthful ardour his testimony for God. Not far from that very spot, many years afterwards, he had the honour of opening a chapel he had himself erected for the worship of God, and a school for the instruction of the young: and thus there were delightful and interesting pledges of the brightness and success of his path.

The first time he preached in London was for his friend Mr. Clayton, who was then engaged in connexion with the Countess of Huntingdon's Society; and he also preached repeatedly for the late Mr. Crowle, at that time living in London. Such engagements became a virtual pledge that he should do greater things, and enter on a more extended and permanent sphere of labour. At this period he felt a difficulty, and no small difficulty, as to the course he should pursue. He had observed much of the power of religion amidst the Calvinistic Methodists, and some of the evangelical clergymen of the Established Church; and, had not difficulties pressed upon his conscience, and rendered it impossible to conform to the national hierarchy, his views of the most inviting sphere of usefulness, might have induced him to enter within its pale. Long afterwards, however, he recorded his entire satisfaction in the choice he had made of pursuing his ministry among Congregational Dissenters. In about a year afterwards he began to preach, and accepted an invitation to settle in the ministry, at Lancaster; and at Lancaster, where he continued six years, he was most honoured of God. In that county his entrance at

Lancashire,his itinerating labours in that sphere, and the revival of religion in various parts connected with his faithful and energetic ministrations, are well remembered. In an interesting memorial found among his papers is a reference to this: "I was about six years at Lancaster, where I hope my ministry was blessed to the conversion of souls, and the edification of the church. But, though hearers were added, our number was not increased: the sea-service of that town, and the removal of members to other parts, was a constant drawback; but my usefulness was, to a considerable extent, by itinerating ;" and he has recorded various places which he systematically visited. In many places chapels were erected; in many of them now there are churches of the living God, to the praise and glory of his grace. He says, "The six years spent at Lancaster were perhaps some of the most useful of my life, and the most laborious, for I preached some years two hundred and fifty times, rode somewhere about two thousand five hundred, or two thousand six hundred miles; and yet, amidst no small infirmities, and manifold weaknesses, God enabled me to persevere."

A wider sphere of labour, and one more adapted to the powers and energies of his mind, was presented to him in the populous city of Coventry; and there our esteemed and lamented friend continued nearly twenty years. Of this period he remarks, "I humbly trust God gave many seals to my ministry, who, by his grace, I hope will be the crown of my rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus." It was during his residence in Coventry, and while engaged in the arduous duty of his pastoral and itinerating labours, that he published the first volume of his "Village Sermons," a work which he afterwards extended to eight volumes, all of which are marked by his characte ristic qualities-eminent simplicity, directness of adaptation to one end, and that end continually usefulness. The

66

Village Sermons" are a publication that will never be forgotten; and they deserve the immortality they will most assuredly obtain. Evangelic in sentiment, pervaded by a rich tone of practical piety, pre-eminently lucid in their style, their method and their object marked by a calm dignity and an unaf fected plainness as remote from vulgarity as from display, and free from every thing polemic and controversial, and yet always maintaining the great truths of the common salvation-they have attained an extent of circulation altogether unparalleled in the history of sermons,