he was united in Christian fellowship, with the Independent Church then assembling at Cannon Street Road Chapel, St. George's in the East, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas Bryson. That estimable man, who had himself been introduced to the ministry through the vigilance of others, soon observed the piety, strong sense, and adaptation for usefulness, by which his young friend was distinguished, and he gave him such advice, and recommended such a course of reading, as prepared Mr. D. to appear before the church as a candidate for the Christian minis

try. Under their sanction he went forth and preached at Newport, in Essex, and other places, till, in the spring of 1795, he was led to Chishill, where, having preached for more than a year as a probationer, he was ordained pastor, May 19th, 1796.

At the period he entered upon this sphere of labour the meetinghouse was almost deserted, and the church was reduced to a very few members. It pleased God, however, so to bless the labours of his servant, that in a few years the interest attained to a degree of prosperity never before known. Amidst these cheering circumstances, an event occurred which threatened the most serious results. The village was visited with a calamitous fire, which in its destructive progress consumed not only farm houses, cottages, barns, maltings, and workshops, but also the venerable meeting-house, and thus at once destroyed the house of prayer, and the property of those who worshipped in it. The characteristic energy of Mr. Dobson was called forth by this event, and by the liberality of the people, notwithstanding their losses, and by the aid of the religious public, the meeting house was re

built. A few years proved that the place was too strait for them, and several successive enlargements were made, till this devoted pastor saw himself surrounded by a congregation of about 800 persons. Amidst the constantly recurring duties of his pastoral charge, did this valued minister spend his life, and however injurious to his bodily health these labours were found to be, yet it is the comfort and the honour of the people to recollect, that his spirits were never broken by their untoward temper or unholy conduct. "I was never, during the period of nearly forty years," said he, "for a single hour made uneasy by my church." It may be imagined that the mutual affection that subsisted between this faithful and devoted pastor and his attached and sympathetic people, was strongly evinced as the time drew nigh "when they should see his face no more!" The last time he administered the Lord's Supper he was borne to the sacramental board, and there, amidst extreme weakness, he gave utterance to his emotions of love and joy in a manner that will long live in the recollection of his brethren: there

with the lapse of years, and has secured the faithful exhibition of the Gospel of Jesus to the surrounding hamlets, which, but for it, might have been left in all the darkness of their natural igno

rance.

The advocates of a state provision for the support of religious ordinances admit, that the voluntary principle may be equal to maintain public worship in our larger towns and cities, but deny its competency in rural districts. The church before us presents an instance, of which there are, happily, many hundreds throughout the kingdom, of a whole rural district brought under the influence of vital religion by the labours of a

faithful pastor, and the voluntary contributions of his people not only to support him, but to build and enlarge their house of prayer, uphold a large Sabbathschool, and to promote village preaching at home and missions abroad, while they are at the same time taxed to support the endowed church establishment. Sure we are, that if religion were left to her own and every community had to provide for its own efforts, and those only, that there would be seen in every district of this country a much wider diffusion of spiritual religion than has yet been known. "The Lord hasten it in his time."

resources,

UNDER the old or Mosaic economy, great importance was attached to local sanctity, and the most scrupulous attention was required to the numerous minute ceremonies of the levitical ritual. The Jews were taught to regard the temple as peculiarly the residence of Jehovah-a circumstance which was of itself sufficient to invest every object in any way connected with it with more than ordinary sacredness, and inspire the mind with feelings of holy solemnity and awe. Those who went up to worship in that august edifice were required to sanctify themselves, in order that they might engage in the prescribed service in an acceptable manner. They were to approach it under the influence of a sacred and impressive sense of the Divine presence. The priests, and especially the High Priests, were commanded to observe preparatory oblations, and draw near in the

most solemn manner to the altar of the Most High. In short, every thing seems to have been arranged so as to excite in the mind the conviction: Holiness becometh thy house for ever.

On the introduction of the new dispensation, all sanctity of places was removed. "In every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts. The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.”— Mal. i. 11; John iv. 21. When the time of reformation came, an end was put to the divers washings and carnal ordinances, or those appointments which related to external purification. Every thing connected with the worship of God was rendered more spiritual. The pomp and splendour necessarily belonging to an earthly temple

were withdrawn, to give place to the simplicity of Gospel worship; and, since that period, every attempt to call forth the beggarly elements of ceremonial observance has only tended to disfigure and degrade the religion of the Lord Jesus.

Great, however, as is the change which has thus been effected, it would be grossly erroneous to suppose, that any alteration was designed to be produced in the moral sanctity of religious service, except it be in regard to the greater intensity given to the degree of that sanctity by the incomparably more powerful excitements furnished by the Gospel of Christ. A spirit of listlessness, levity, and daring, forms no part of that liberty with which Christ hath made his people free. From the burdensome yoke of ceremonies he has indeed liberated them, but it is only that, by abstracting their thoughts from things visible and earthly, he might the more effectually engage them to worship the Father in spirit and truth. Though, therefore, there is now no more sacredness attaching to the brick and mortar of a place of worship, than to any other building whatever, there is still a high degree of sanctity pertaining to the assemblies of the saints. "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Those who believe in the Saviour, and, in obedience to his command, have come out from the world, and associated themselves for the purpose of publicly observing his ordinances, are a sanctified people. They are not only the purchase of the blood of Christ, but the subjects of the regenerating and purifying influences of the Holy Spirit.How solemn the reflection, that in every Christian, assembled with his brethren, the Spirit of all holiness dwells and operates, and that

every thing acceptable about the worship is to be traced to his gracious influence! The Redeemer himself has promised to be specially present in the midst of his assembled disciples, Matt. xviii. 20, and a conviction of the reality of this invisible presence is highly calculated to produce spiritual and holy feelings in every regenerate mind. The importance of the means of grace, the ends to be gained by their due improvement, the frame of mind which corresponds to their nature and design, and the high and awful responsibilities which the possession of them involves: these, and numerous other considerations which will easily suggest themselves to the reader, conspire to fill the mind with reverence, and lead it to cherish those feelings and dispositions which alone can be regarded as comporting with the hallowed associations of "the Temple of the Living God."

The words of an inspired apostle, which stand at the head of this paper, are strongly corroborative of these observations. They expressly inculcate, that every thing connected with the public worship of God should be so arranged and conducted as the nature of the service requires. They imply that there is a decorum, a propriety, a decency and gracefulness of demeanour to be observed by all the members of a Christian church, and an established order and arrangement to which it is their duty at all times rigidly to adhere. They involve:

I. PUNCTUALITY. As it is indispensable that a fixed and definite hour for assembling be agreed upon by all Christian churches, nothing can be more obvious than the duty which such a regulation implies, viz. that every member should make it a matter of conscience to be in his place by the

appointed hour. In some places of worship, there is a gross breach of decorum in this respect. After waiting, it may be nearly ten minutes past the time, the minister ascends the pulpit, but still observing only a sprinkling over the area of the chapel, and perceiving one person dropping in after another, postpones the commencement of the service for another five minutes. And, even after he has begun to implore the Divine blessing on the services of the day, or to read that word by which his hearers are to be judged at the tribunal of Christ, he is disturbed by the indecent noises occasioned by the entrance and bustle of others who are still later in their attendance. It ought to be a subject of serious enquiry on the part of every minister, whether such irregularity be not the result of a previous want of punctuality on his part, and if so, to rectify it as speedily as possible. And it may be recommended to all ministers to consider whether it would not be seemly that they, as examples to their flocks, should always be in the pulpit before, rather than after the hour, so as to commence the service precisely at the proper time, irrespective of the number of persons who may happen to be present. A visible change would soon be the result; and, if any still continued to come in late, an appeal

the subject might then be consistently made from the pulpit. Many persons seem to forget that the great object for which Christians assemble is to worship God. The consequence is, that with them it is a matter of comparative, if not of absolute insignificance, at what part of the service they enter a chapel, only they contrive to be in time for the sermon ! Let all who go up to the courts of the Eternal and Infinite Majesty of Heaven and

Earth, reflect how anxious they would be, how they would scheme and contrive, how they would make every thing bend in subserviency to their purpose, were they to be received at a given hour into the presence-chamber of an earthly monarch. Shall that attention be given, and that punctuality be observed in deference to a worm of the dust, which is wantonly and listlessly withholden from Him who, after he hath killed the body, hath power to cast into hell? Should we not rather fear

Him?

II. DEVOUT STILLNESS is another of the decencies which the public service of God demands. Not to observe further on the outrage to the feelings of the diligent and devout worshipper which is committed by those to whose noisy entrance at a late hour we have just adverted, it may be proper to remark, that the most profound silence ought to be observed during every part of the service in which no call is made on vocal participation. And this participation should ever be confined to the psalmody, and the Amen at the close of the prayers, as practised in the primitive church. Nothing is more offensive to a sober mind than the mechanical Amen of the Methodists, ever and anon repeated in the course of prayer, or the no less mechanical groans which distinguish that body, and some other sections of the professing church of Christ; while, on the contrary, nothing is more gratifying both to ministers and all truly serious and enlightened hearers, than to witness that stillness which the flutter of a gnat's wing would break, and which is evidently produced by a solemn sense of the Divine presence, or by due reflexion on the all-important truths which are being delivered, or the

fervent prayers which, in the name of all, are being presented to the throne of the Infinite Majesty. Not only ought the ease with which a cough may be suppressed, to evince the indecorousness of a noisy indulgence in that disagree able habit, but there ought to be a strenuous effort made to put a stop to what is gaining ground in some congregations-the interruption of such a suppression at the end of certain divisions or paragraphs of the discourse, by a fit of coughing which would seem to have attacked the whole assembly. There is, no doubt, a habit in this, as in every thing else, and it only requires to be resolutely resisted in order to its abandonment.

III. SERIOUS ATTENTION to the word of God, whether as read from the Scriptures, or exhibited, illustrated, and enforced in the sermon, ought ever to characterize the members of Christian assemblies. Not only should there be an avoidance of every thing that would divert the attention, distract the thoughts, unbend the mind, and carnalize the affections, but there should be a positive and continued effort to have the heart fixed on divine things, and especially to have it occupied with the subjects which, on the occasion, are presented to the view. The consideration that it is the truth of God, to which the attention is summoned-truth which involves the high and immortal interests of the human soul, which sanctifies and saves it, producing, in the hand of the Spirit, the new and spiritual nature, the knowledge of God, repentance for sin, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the hope of eternal life, and a course of action in correspondence with these allimportant principles, should communicate a tone of the deepest seriousness to the mind, and lead N. S. No. 92.

it to banish every trifling thought, and resist every intruding care, that the word, which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and proving a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, may have room to produce its legitimate effects. The fact, too, that an account must be rendered of the improvement or misimprovement of the means of grace, and that each opportunity that we enjoy may be our last, ought to operate powerfully to the production of that serious and devout attention which is required of all who hear the Gospel of Christ.

The influence of such a spirit will be manifest in the external deportment of those who feel it. They will not be like many whose eyes are continually gadding about, and surveying one part of the congregation after another; nor will they exhibit the disgusting spectacle which is sometimes to be seen in places of worship, of persons nodding assent, and smiling, and tossing up their heads in approbation of the sermon. They will, individually, consider themselves isolated, and called upon to examine their own state and character, by the truth which they are hearing; and under the impression thus produced, they will discover a sober stayedness of demeanour, and an anxious solicitude to obtain not merely a salutary excitement, but solid instruction and edification to their souls. With their attention rivetted by the word, they will not be of the number of those who, after the half hour, begin, as it were instinctively, to look at the clock, and who give indications by the restlessness of their behaviour, that the language of their hearts is, "what a weariness is it: when will it be over!”

30