Contributions in aid of the Society will be thankfully received by Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, Bart., Treasurer, and Rev. Ebenezer Prout, at the Mission House, Blomfield-street, Finsbury, London; by Mr. W. F. Watson, 52, Princes-street, Edinburgh; J. Risk, Esq., 108, Fife-place, Glasgow; and by Rev. John Hands, Society House, 32, Lower Abbey-street, Dublin. Post-Office Orders should be in favour of Rev. Ebenezer Prout, and payable at the General Post Office. LONDON REED AND PARDON, PRINTERS, PATERNOSTER ROW. THE EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE, AND MISSIONARY CHRONICLE. FOR MAY, 1852. MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. THOMAS LEWIS, OF ISLINGTON. THE late Rev. Thomas Lewis was born at his maternal grandfather's house, near Ludlow, in Shropshire, in the year 1777. His parentage was highly respectable. He was favoured, from his infancy, with a religious education, principally under the care of a pious aunt. It was not, however, till he was about sixteen years of age, that he was brought, while attending the preaching of the gospel in the Methodist connexion, to know and feel effectually the power of the truth. On this occasion, he was the subject of deep convictions. For many, months he felt great distress of mind, not daring to take the encouragements, or appropriate the promises, of the Divine Word; but led, at last, by the Holy Spirit, to cast himself wholly on the mercy of God, in his Son Jesus Christ, and devoutly to seek light from above, it shone into his heart, and cheered him with the consolations and the joy of salvation. He became a regular attendant on the Prayer-Meetings, where his correct demeanour and pious conversation procured him the favourable notice of his Christian friends. At their invitation, he took an active part in their devotional exercises. He united, also, with their 'Benevolent VOL. XXX. Society" for visiting the sick; and shortly was pressed to join their preachers at the Workhouse. After he had delivered some exhortations there, he accepted a pressing invitation to go and labour in the Canterbury Circuit, and continued an esteemed and acceptable preacher in that connexion till the year 1802. In consequence of some change now taking place in his doctrinal views, he frequently availed himself of the ministry of the Rev. John Clayton, of the Weigh House, as also of that of the Rev. Charles Buck, to whom he especially acknowledged himself indebted for kind and valuable assistance in his studies. Meanwhile, at the particular desire of his friends. Messrs. Reyner and Robert Cowie, he frequently occupied the pulpits at Kingsland Chapel, and at Highbury Grove, Islington. The religious destitution of the parish of Islington, at that day, was deeply felt and deplored by some good people in the neighbourhood. With a view, therefore, to secure to themselves and others the privilege of an evangelical ministry of the Word, a few Christian men among them took the Chapel in the Grove, which continued for some time to be variously supplied. These zealous friends of the Truth, acting on the principle of Christian union, saw it advisable to organize themselves into Church-form; which having done, they invited Mr. Lewis to take the oversight of them in the Lord. After much prayer for direction, and some conversation with his friends, he accepted their call. He was the more impressed with the conviction that this was the post of labour to which the Lord had appointed him, from the fact that he had earnestly desired, and made it his prayer to God, that if He should see meet to call him out into His vineyard, He would be pleased to assign him a spot not previously cultivated by ministerial labour, that he might not build upon another man's foundation. In his call to Highbury Grove, he felt that his prayer was heard in a graciously visible manner. His ordination took place at Orange Street Chapel, in April, 1804. The ministers engaged on that occasion were the Revs. C. Buck, G. Burder, R. Hill, and Dr. Nichol. The period of his ordination was an epoch in the life of Mr. Lewis (then in the twenty-seventh year of his age), of interesting emotions, at the time, and which had an influential bearing on the whole of his subsequent years in the ministry. He felt that he had just entered on a relation to the Church of Christ, and to society at large, of the very gravest character; and that he was invested with an office involving duties and responsibilities of the highest order; that he had become the central object of observation to not a few carnest and vigilant witnesses of the course he was about to pursue; above all, that he stood in the view of his Lord as one broken off from every earthly pursuit, to devote his entire self, his time, his talents, his heart, his soul,-exclusively to His service and glory in the world. It is sufficiently evident, from numerous passages of his Diary, that he was powerfully impressed with the character of the engagements to which he was thus committed for life. In reference to his assuming the pastoral office, he thus writes:— "When I left secular affairs to devote myself wholly to the ministry, it was with much fear and trembling; and my mind was much distressed with misgivings lest I had deserted my proper place, and become an intruder." He was at all times remarkable for the humble estimate he entertained of his own worth and abilities. Some years after his settlement in the pastorate, we find him thus writing of himself: "How unfit, both as it respects natural parts, and piety, too, do I appear to be for the sacred work in which I am employed! If I have really entered upon it without the Divine warrant, I pray that my God may put me out of it, and save me from the shame and sin of being an intruder. Lord! thou knowest, I wish to be what thou wouldst have me; where thou wouldst have me; and about what thou wouldst have me. O direct my path!" His ministry in Highbury Grove was greatly blessed, not to his own small Church and congregation only, but to the neighbourhood around him; and it was soon found needful, from the increase of worshippers at the Grove, to procure a larger and more commodious house. To effect this object, the friends of the good cause readily united their efforts; and that handsome place of worship was erected to which they gave the appropriate name of UNION CHAPEL. To this house, capacious enough to accommodate from one thousand to twelve hundred persons, did Mr. Lewis and his people remove, in about two years after his ordination. It was opened for regular service, on the 29th of August, 1806; on which occasion, the ministers engaged were the Revs. Henry Gauntlett, Vicar of Olney; Dr. Bogue, of Gosport; and Dr. Ben. McDowall, Senior Min |
