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life. The sinking of the shaft was instantaneous. I understood the law and my heart as well as I do now, or shall in the Day of Judgment, I believe. The commandment came, sin revived, and I died, quick as a flash of lightning. 'Well,' I thought, it's all over with me. I'm gone. There's no hope for such a sinner.' Despair followed the inward revelation of what I had read, but never felt. I had never had any feeling of love to God, and all my affections were selfish and worldly."

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His trial was long and severe. Working at his own heart without outside help he halted long, though he states that his was what he "should now call a hopeful, promising case." The fact is, the law and doctrines without any explanations is a cruel way to get souls into the kingdom." Finally, however, he found Christ. "Election and decrees became less a stumbling-block. I came in by that door. I felt reconciled and resigned, yet with alternations of darkness and discouragement, and a severe conflict whether it would be right for me to preach, which extended even into my divinity year."

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"One reason I was so long in the dark was, I was under law, was stumbling in the doctrines, and had no views of Christ. They gave me other books to read besides the Bible-a thing I have done practising long since. For cases like mine, Brainerd's Life' is a most undesirable thing. It gave me a tinge for years. So 'Edwards on the Affections' most overwhelming thing, and to common minds the most entangling. The impressions left by such books were not spiritual, but a state of permanent hypochondria-the horrors of a mind without guidance, motive, or ability to do anything. They are a bad generation of books on the whole. Divine sovereignty does the whole in spite of them. I was converted in spite of such books."

RICHARD CAPEL,

THE subject of this sketch, was a Nonconformist minister who died a few years before the great Ejectment.

Richard Capel was educated at Oxford, and was for many years rector of Eastington, a village about ten miles from Gloucester, and about six miles from Stroud.

A pleasant memoir is given in a delightful little old quarto book, written by Samuel Clarke, in 1661. It fell to the lot of the writer of this paper to live for many years in Storud, in a house within sight of a clothing establishment called Capel's Mill, which has doubtless borne that name for one or two centuries, at least, and was probably built by one of the family whose name it bears. A respectable family of that name are now living on their own estate very near Stroud. The Lord Capel, whose name occurs in the history of the seventeenth century, was one of the same family. The writer, having lived in that locality, has become acquainted with some particulars additional to those recorded by Clarke, which it may be worth while to put on record. Mr. Richard Capel had a son named Daniel, who, like his father, was a good minister of Jesus Christ, and on the memorable day of ejectment, in 1662, resigned his living at ShiptonMeyne, Gloucestershire.

Mr. Richard Capel, had he been living, would doubtless have sympathized and acted with the famous 2,000; but he became a practical Nonconformist many years before that time, having resigned his rectorship at Eastington in the year 1634, on account of his utter unwillingness to read from the pulpit the ungodly though royal proclamation in favour of games and sports on Sunday. He seems to have been not only of blameless, but of truly admirable character. He not only preached well, but, like his Divine Master, "went about doing good." He had enjoyed the advantage of a medical as well as theological education, and seems to have been much esteemed in

each of these departments of action. After he resigned his living at Eastington, his preaching was gratuitous, and such, generally, was his medical practice. His private income enabled him thus generously to act.

After leaving Eastington, he resided at Pitchcombe, a village about two miles from Stroud, on the way to Gloucester. His places of worship and of preaching were then usually private dwelling-houses; mostly, it is probable, his own house.

His chief work in authorship was a book on 66 Tentation," as he spelt the word, agreeably to its Latin origin; which book reached a fifth edition in the course of a few years.

He was chosen as one of the famous Westminster Assembly of Divines, but declined joining that body, though there is good ground for believing that he fully sympathized with them in their views of Scripture doctrine. In his latter years he was called to suffer both personal and relative affliction, but his last illness was remarkably short and painless. It was on the Lord's-day. He had preached as usual, and in the evening went through a service of considerable length with his family; but, before midnight, he was "absent from the body and present with the Lord." The day was September 21, 1656. On Lord's-day, Sept. 21, 1856, exactly two hundred years afterwards, Mr. Barker, who formerly had spent many years in Stroud, preached commemorative discourses, both at Pitchcombe and in Stroud.

It does not appear that either during Mr. Capel's life, or for several years afterwards, Nonconformists in Stroud had any building appropriated to Divine worship. The probability is that the first place in that town which was set apart for religious service was a portion of a large barn in Dyer'scourt, Silver-street, about the year 1690, when partial liberty was obtained; and that a place somewhat superior, but still rather mean, afterwards called the Old Meeting, and subsequently the Old

Chapel, was built about the year 1710. During the early days of this chapel, the original building was called the Old Meeting. The writer, in conversation with some aged persons half a century ago, became acquainted with an occur rence which is worth recording, as being indicative of the religious state of the country in those days, namely, shortly before the Revolution of 1688, and the final departure of the Stuarts. One Sunday morning, while the poor people were assembled for worship in their humble tabernacle in Silver-street, a number of mounted gentlemen, with dogs, and probably a horn, halted at the door, and stayed some little time on purpose to disturb the congregation. The poor people had neither money nor influence enough to enable them to bring the offenders to justice, and doubtless one or more of the gentlemen rioters were nominally and officially Justices, so that all trouble in an attempt to obtain redress would have been thrown away. How thankful ought we to be for the happier times, as to religious liberty, in which we live!

There are now two good Congregational chapels in Stroud. The elder of these was built, as above-mentioned, in 1710, but has been, since then, frequently enlarged and improved.

Although an interval of more than thirty years elapsed between the death of Mr. Richard Capel and the opening of a place of worship in Stroud, for Nonconformists, the writer is pleased to think that some results from the labour and prayers of that good man in and near Stroud are traceable. During that interval there cannot be a reasonable doubt that good people, who had received benefits from his instructions in and near Stroud, would meet repeatedly at one another's houses for worship and mutual exhortation, and that such meetings issued in their fitting-up the before-mentioned barn.

A table-tomb, in good repair, stands in front of the parish church at Pitchcombe, with this inscription, the writer of which is unknown:

"The memory of the just is blessed." RICHARD CAPEL, Minister and Physician, pious, painful, and profitable in his labours; wherein he lived, desired, for which he died, lamented, and

by which, he being dead, yet speaketh. He finished his course, and was gathered to his people, September 21, 1856, aged 75. Bristol, June, 1864.

J. B.

Lay Preaching.

A LETTER TO A YOUNG BEGINNER.

MY DEAR TIMOTHY,-I am pleased that you have made a commencement, and that you see reason to thank God and take courage. Why should you not? Courage in this, as in everything else connected with the service of God, is a great matter. You do well to take for your motto the words of the Apostle, Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.”

I very cheerfully comply with your request, for a few thoughts on the general question, which may be of service to you. I shall, moreover, in so doing, give you the benefit of my recent reading on this matter, which has supplied several very valuable extracts. I have been much gratified with a portion of the letters of Professor Wayland, on "The Ministry of the Gospel." As to the manner of preaching, Dr. Wayland argues for the dispensing entirely with the manuscript. While instances can be cited of powerful impressions produced by written sermons, he contends that the written is not the colloquial or spoken style which the pulpit demands, and that from the nature of the case it cannot be. He appeals to experience to fortify his positions, and summarily dismisses, as insufficient, the reasons which are urged for retaining the manuscript. I need not say how cordially I concur with the Professor in these views. On the same subject I have met with the following in the life of the clebrated Dr. Beecher, lately issued:

'A cold heart, and pride, and sloth, are the only formidable impediments to extempore speaking, where there is common sense and common powers of elocution, cultivated by a liberal education. I would by no means give up the pen and that application to study which, if it can be, never will be without writing. But strongly believe that the man who can write well and speak well without writing is much more thoroughly furnished to every good work than the man who ventures to communicate only what is both premeditated and written.

"There will be frequently occurring in the course of our ministry, certain "mollia tempora fandi," which study cannot anticipate, and which wisdom cannot neglect. Then, my brother, let the heart dictate sentiment, and language and manner (pardon me; I am no professor of eloquence, and am not writing a treatise on the subject), and if there should be ten grammatical blunders, there will be, to balance them, more life, and emphasis, and impression, and more good done, than in many a discourse in which there is not a single blunder.

"I mean not that a man may not extemporize with grammatical correctness; but the fear of mistake often keeps us back, and locks up talent, and neglects opportunities of inestimable importance. If we felt less concern about our own reputation, and more of the love of Christ and of souls, we should oftener, I am persuaded, speak with fluency and power. O Lord, increase our faith, and deliver us from the fear of man, which bringeth a snare, and give us a mouth and wisdom which the adversaries of God shall not be able to gainsay nor resist!

Mr. Spurgeon describes most vividly the power of the extemporary preacher over an assembly; he says:

"I know from my own experience, that it is no uncommon thing for some one individual to arrest the preacher's attention. The group of countenances which lay before him in a large assembly like the present, might to the first glance of a stranger look confused and inexplicable, as a Chinese grammar does to those who know not the language. But you need not doubt that a practised eye can learn to read the one as well as the other. The languor and indifference of some; the curious inquiring look of others; the cold, critical attention of a considerable number, and the countenances of those who are rather absorbed in a train of thought just awakened in their own minds-these have all a peculiar impressiveness, and form a picture which often reacts upon us, and kindles a vehement desire in our breasts to reach the souls of those who, for a brief hour, hang upon our lips. there will sometimes be one who has faith dazzling in his very eyes, as they are fixed with an intentness, of which it were vain for me to attempt a description, seeming to drink in every word and every syllable of a word, till the preacher becomes as absorbed in that man as the man had been in the preacher.

But

And while he pursues the discourse, gaining liberty at every step, till he forgets the formality of the pulpit in the freedom of conversation with the people, he perceives that at last this man has heard the very truth which meets his case. There is no concealing it. His features have suddenly relaxed. He listens still, but it is no longer with painful anxiety; a calm satisfaction is palpable on his face now. That soul of communion which is in the eye has unravelled the secret. Preacher and hearer, unknown to all the rest of the audience, have secretly saluted each other, and met on the common ground of a vital faith. The anxious one feels that it can be done. And I can readily conclude that the Apostle perceived that feeling with greater certainty than he would have done had the man whispered it in his ears. So have I sometimes known that the exhortation to believe has become from these lips a positive command to the struggling conscience of some one who has been brought to a point where the remedy is instantly applied, and the cure instantly effected."

Now this is simply a true picture of what is passing daily in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and in many other places, but it is an achievement which no human being can effect by reading a manuscript. I have heard all the great pulpit readers of my time, but not one even approached the pattern so beautifully depicted by Spurgeon. The paper is utterly fatal to the divine "communion of soul." On the subject of fluency, there is a striking passage, touching exercise in the life of the celebrated American orator, Henry Clay, in which he says:

"I owe my success in life to one single fact, namely: At the age of twenty-seven I commenced, and continued for years, the process of daily reading and speaking upon the contents of a historical or scientific book. These off-hand efforts were made sometimes in a cornfield, at others in the forest, and not unfrequently in some distant barn, with the horse and cow for my auditors. It is to this early practice in the great art of all arts, that I am indebted for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated me forward, and shaped and moulded my entire subsequent destiny. Improve, then young gentlemen, the advantages you enjoy. Let not a day pass without exercising your powers of speech. There is no power like that of oratory. Cæsar controlled men by exciting their fears; Cicero, by captivating their affections, and swaying their passions. The influence of the one perished with its author; that of the other continues to this day."

True eloquence, however, is much less an affair of vocables than of unction. An able writer remarks:

"The power of the preacher is not be attained by rhetorical studies. These have

their place, but it is an inferior and subsidiary one; and the result of undue attention to them is beautiful debility and cold polish.

"There is such profundity, comprehensiveness and variety in the Word of God that it is a library of itself. There is such a freshness in its mode of presenting truth, that he who is perpetually conversant with it can scarcely be dull.

"The liveliest preachers are those who are most familiar with the Bible, without note or comment; and we frequently find them among men who have no education better than of the common school.

"The best effect of many Scripture texts on a sermon, is often that which does not lead to a direct rehearsal of them.

"In delivery, learn to know when to dwell on a point; let the enlargement be, not where determined in your closet it should be; but where you feel the spring flowing as you speak -let it gush. Let contemplation have a place while you speak.

"High thoughts will make high language. Some men of study and research are called upon to preach in a strain above the common level, even if some do not understand them. There are enough who cannot rise above average minds. And man's best and loftiest meditations should go out of him in the shape of sermons."

But while it is proper to attend to preaching, let it not be forgotten, that it is still more important to attend to prayer. Great preaching is very good in its way, but I estimate at an incalculably higher figure, great prayer.

It is

to be feared, however, that prayer employs less attention, both amongst private students and in colleges, than preaching. The following passage of a wise writer well deserves attention:

They

"The celebrated Professor Franke, who founded the great Orphan Asylum, in Halle, was walking one day in the fields with one of his colleagues. All at once the voice of a person praying drew their attention. stopt, and on looking, observed behind a bush, two children on their knees, one of whom was praying fervently to God. The two professors listened, and were edified at the devotion which the young Christian seemed to possess.

"When the prayer was ended, the children rose, 'Well,' said the one who had led the devotions, with a self-complacent air, 'didn't make a fine prayer?'

"This last remark caused Franke and his companion a painful surprise. But after a moment's reflection, one of them remarked: 'This child has only shown openly what often passes in all our minds. How often, when God has disposed us to pray with some fervour in presence of our brethren, do we rise from our knees with a secret vanity; and if shame did not restrain us, we should ask with this child:-'Have not I made a fine prayer?'

"Not only in prayer do we find this miserable pride of our heart, but in our sermons too. Ask the most faithful preacher if, after delivering an eloquent discourse, he had not often applauded himself, and been tempted to

say to his hearers: 'Have not I made a fine sermon?' Oh! may the Lord deign to inspire us with more humility and self-renunciation."

To this, I feel assured, you will add your hearty Amen.

Wishing you abundant increase of every gift, and of every grace the work requires, I remain your faithful friend, AN OLD PREACHER.

June 21st, 1864.

Puritan Preaching.

JOHN FLAVEL.

Ir was a sore hardship for the old Puritans to refrain from preaching. The law that silenced them they felt to be unjust, and sometimes for the luxury of proclaiming the Gospel they were willing to risk the penalty. On one occasion Flavel visited the old city of Exeter. The good people gave him a hearty greeting, and many of them invited him to preach to them in a wood three miles distant. He could not refuse them; but the informers were on his track, and the meeting was broken up. Many of the hearers were taken, but Flavel himself escaped.

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the first indulgence granted by the king, he returned to Dartmouth and preached openly. When this was called in he continued to preach, but with more secresy. Such, however, was the malice of his enemies, that he resolved to leave the place and retire to London. Here he found much work, and was greatly encouraged in it. But even here he was not left at peace. He was among the praying company, of whom his friend Jenkyn, arrested and abused by the soldiers, was one; and had he not made good his escape, might have perished like his friend—a martyred prisoner in Newgate.

Again he thought of flight, but ere he could accomplish his purpose was confined a close prisoner to his house. Here, on Saturday nights and on the early mornings of the Lord's Day, he was visited by his people, who " stole in" to enjoy the benefits of his prayers, preaching, and conversation. On the death of Jenkyn (1685) he was called as his successor, but he could not be persuaded to give up Dartmouth. On the granting of liberty of worship by King James (1687) his people rallied around him, and "provided him a large place." The malice that in 1685 led the populace of Dartmouth to carry his effigy in derision through the streets and then burn it, at length subsided, and his useful career was continued till his death

His

in 1691, in the 64th year of his age. departure was sudden, and took place at Exeter, where he had gone to preach before the Assembly, of which he was Moderator, with a view to a union between the Presbyterians and Independents, which he was zealous to promote.

His works comprise eight octavo volumes. Most of them consist of sermons which he had preached to his own people. Even in the age in which he lived he must have ranked among the foremost in presenting the marrow of Gospel truth. A practical air pervades all his writings. Very rarely, if ever, does he indulge in any elaborate disquisitions. His statements of doctrine are clear, methodical, and yet Biblical. He never raises any curious questions to show his skill in solving them. His taste evidently eschewed casuistry. He goes at his work like a man in earnest, never disturbed by a single scruple as to whether men may hiss or applaud. Sometimes he repeats his illustrations, but they will bear it. Sometimes he quotes learned or classical authors, but evidently not for show. He lingers sometimes amid quaint fancies or similitudes, but only to pluck the most striking emblems of Scripture truth.

Evidently the thought of human praise was in his mind quite subsidiary to the thought of usefulness. He wrote not for applause, but to do good. "the

"When I consider," he says, success of books and sermons in the world hath but little relation to the elegancy of language or accuracy of method, and that many may be useful who cannot be excellent, I am willing, in all humility and sincerity, to commit it (his own book) to the direction of Providence and the blessing of the Spirit."

Speaking of "the first fruits of his spare hours," he manifests his sense of the obligations to improve the leisure enforced upon him by persecution.

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