MEMOIR OF MR. ISAAC COLLYER, OF WARTON, IN THE COUNTY OF WARWICK. MR. ISAAC COLLYER was born in the month of January 1809, at Church Greasley. His parents were followers of the blessed Saviour, of the General Baptist denomination, being members of the church at Austrey. The mind of their son Isaac, at an early age, was impressed with the evil of sin, and piously inclined. His parents desiring that he might have a respectable calling, bound him an apprentice to a Mr. Smith, of Austrey, carpenter and wheelwright. This opened his way for an acquaintance with the Rev. J. Barnes, then minister of the General Baptist chapel in that village, an acquaintance which became mutual, and continued without any interruption for many years. He served his master with commendable diligence and faithfulness during the five years of his apprenticeship, and continued with him five years afterwards as a journeyman. During the former part of his apprenticeship, he was much opposed in his attending the chapel, and his adherence to the gospel. After his day's work was finished, he was a regular attendant at the prayer meeting and week-night services; but in this he was much annoyed. Hastening home as soon as these services were ended, he sometimes found the doors closed against him, so that he had to seek rest for the night amongst his religious acquaintances and friends. This annoyance ceased in the following manner :-it pleased the Almighty, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, to visit Mrs. Smith with affliction. She became much alarmed, and felt a deep concern for her soul. One day the master went into the shop, and thus accosted him— Isaac, you must go and see your mistress.' His reply to the master was as follows: "May I not finish this work?" "No," was the answer, "you must leave the work, never mind about that, go directly and stay as long as she wishes you." He obeyed his master's mandate, had christian conversation and prayer with his mistress, which was made a blessing, and a 66 source of peace and consolation to her troubled mind. Subsequently all annoyance and opposition ceased, and he was permitted to enjoy his religious privileges unmolested. Being favoured with the regular ministry of the gospel and other means of grace, he was brought to feel his guilt and deservings as a sinner against God, and his need of salvation. His spirit was troubled, but at length the manifestations of grace were given, and "his sorrow was turned into joy," his mental distress exchanged for spiritual consolation. He rejoiced in the Lord and exclaimed, "I will joy in the God of salvation; though he was angry with me his anger is turned away, and he comforteth me. Being desirous of obeying the Lord Jesus, and living to him in faith, love, and holy obedience, and finding that the scriptural way into the church is through the baptismal waters, he requested of the pastor and the church that he might profess his faith in Christ, and his love to him in that way, and be received into their christian fellowship. His desire was complied with. He was baptized when he was about twenty years of age at Austrey, and received into the church. He afterwards settled at Warton, where he enjoyed the assistance of his sincere and estimable friend Mr. Thomas Thirlby, (then a resident in the village) whose unvarying kindness was vividly remembered by our deceased friend till the day of his death. By diligence, economy, attention, courteous demeanour towards his employers, and the blessing of heaven, he speedily became a tradesman of established reputation and credit, and obtained a good report of all men. Soon after his union with the church, being of a warm ardent temperament, he was anxious to be useful to others, hence he devoted his energies to the Lord's-day school, was requested to engage in the meetings held for united prayer, and afterwards, by the direction and sanction both of the pastor and the church, to preach occasionally. His efforts being approved, it was thought he should be encouraged to make application to be favoured with the advantages of the Educational Institution at Loughborough, of which the late Rev. Thomas Stevenson was the efficient and revered Tutor. In accordance with the advice of his friends, an application was made, but It proved a failure. After being admitted three months upon trial, the committee judged they could not satisfactorily recommend him as an eligible candidate to the institution, consequently he returned home and entered again with assiduity upon his secular calling. Notwithstanding this disappointment, which was most keenly felt, and which might have silenced less ardent persons, our deceased friend still continued to preach. Appleby, Polesworth, and Warton, as circumstances required, enjoyed his labours, which were acceptable, useful, and appreciated. He continued in these labours of love for many years, and at the two latter places he laboured till his physical and mental energies became too feeble for the exertion. In the year 1835, he entered into the married state with Miss Lydia Proudman, of Measham, who was found truly an helpmeet for him, both in temporal and spiritual engagements. In his health and affliction, in his joys and his sorrows, she was an affectionate companion. She survives him with six children, the eldest of which is, unhappily, the subject of a painful affliction, and incapable of taking care of himself. Our deceased friend was the subject of a long lingering affliction of the pulmonary kind. Several medical men were consulted; a change of air, visiting the sea-beach, were resorted to, but all proved ineffectual. In the course of the last Autumn he became weaker, his breathing much more difficult; nature sank rapidly, till at length, on the 10th of November, near the hour of midnight, the weary wheels of mortal life stood still. As a christian he was one of no ordinary character. A serious grave deportment was one of his distinguishing features. He was open and just in his dealings. He was benevolent, probably to a fault. In supporting the cause of the blessed Saviour, he was liberal and constant. His house, his hand, his heart, his purse were always open, and his time and his ministry were gratuitously given whenever called for. As a minister, if not eloquent, he was useful. He possessed a sound judgment and clear understanding of the gospel way of salvation by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. He had a happy aptness in quoting select and appropriate scripture passages to illustrate, confirm, and amplify the truths which he was treating upon. In his sermons he confined himself to the truths, doctrines, precepts, promises, and threatenings recorded in the sacred volume. He was well acquainted with our religious order and doctrine as a denomination;—a great admirer and lover of the ministry of our old ministers who are now gone to their rest. His funeral took place on the 15th of November. His mortal remains were laid in the burying ground belonging to Warton chapel. The writer of this brief memoir, by his express desire, was requested to officiate in the funeral service. Previous to consigning the body to its last resting place, some observations were made upon the nature and excellency of the "rest which remaineth for the people of God" to a crowded congregation, and in the evening a funeral sermon was delivered from Tim. ii. 4-8, to the largest assembly, it was thought, that had ever been collected there. Many were in tears and deeply affected. J. KNIGHT. Wolvey, December 3rd, 1857, OUR ACADEMY. To the Editor of the General Baptist Magazine. DEAR SIR,-I have read with some degree of attention the papers of your respective correspondents on our Academical Institution, and have felt disposed to say with Elihu, "I also will show mine opinion; " but if it be not likely to contribute to the edification of your readers, I beg that it may be consigned to oblivion. The removal of our late venerable Tutor -to whose ability, fidelity, and devotedness to the interests of the Institution, for nearly fourteen years,-permit this passing tribute of affectionate esteem-has affected us in India, and, I trust, stirred us up to prayer that such arrangements may be made to supply the vacancy, as will greatly promote the efficiency of the ministry amongst us, and the prosperity of our beloved connexion. May I claim the indulgence of your readers to a few remarks. 1. On the ministry we want. While musing on this topic, the words of Christ have often occurred to me-"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest."Matt. ix. 38, Luke x. 2. Such are the men that are required for the service of Christ at home and abroad. It is not indispensably necessary that they should be profoundly learned in the classics, or eminently skilled in the sciences, or able to lecture night after night on a great variety of subjects. I would not depreciate human learning. It has no enemies but the ignorant. God has made great use of it in the advancement of his kingdom; but we have all known ministers who have been honoured by the Divine Spirit in turning many to righteousness whose scholastic attainments were of an humble order. Still, if candidates for the ministry be men of earnest piety, fervent love to souls, much self-denial, willing to impart not the gospel of God only, but their own souls also for the salvation of the people, the more learning they have the better. In the text already quoted, we are taught that the labourers are to expend their consecrated energy in the harvest of Christ. "Labourers in his harvest." Many ministers amongst us have had to labour in the school, or the shop, or the farm; and, in my opinion, if the churches are too poor, or too penurious, sufficiently to support them, it is better thus to labour than to starve their families, or run into debt: but far-far better is it when all their energies are devoted to their work, and they only labour in the harvest of Christ. Our churches want labourersmen to labour in the study-to labour much with their own hearts-to labour in the pulpit, not only in preaching the blessed gospel for the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints, but in leading the devotions of the sanctuary in a spiritual and edifying manner, and to labour out of the pulpit in conversing with anxious inquirers, in warning the unruly, in reclaiming backsliders, attending to the discipline of the church, and in speaking words of consolation and hope in the chambers of affliction, and by the bed of death. Happy the church whose pastor can at once win the affection of a child, and secure the esteem of grey hairs,-who is able to feed the tenderest lambs and face the fiercest foes of Christ. Such an one may fitly employ the beautiful lines of Doddridge "Hast thou a lamb in all thy flock I would disdain to feed? Such are the men we want; and such men will secure the confidence and affection of the churches. There is much craving in the present day after intellect and originality in the pulpit; and it is not sufficiently considered that the proper place for the highest amongst us is to sit as a learner at the feet of Christ; and that the work of the minister is to teach to others what God has been pleased to reveal in his word, and that only. A constant student of the word of God will not fail to bring out of that exhaustless treasury of heavenly knowledge new things, as well as old; but the importance of putting the brethren "always in remembrance" of the principles of the gospel of Christ, "though they know them, and be established in the present truth," cannot be too earnestly enforced. There is no way like it of correcting irregularities, and promoting the edification of the flock of Christ. Good and wholesome food is, in the general, better for our bodies than dainties. An extra good dinner is proper enough on special occasions, as on one's birth-day, or wedding-day, or when visited by a few friends; but, generally, simple wholesome diet is to be preferred. The same remark applies to the provision of God's house. Occasionally an intellectual treat in the sanctuary is richly enjoyed, provided powerful reasoning and beautiful illustrations be employed to exhibit in new and interesting forms those precious truths which are the life-blood of christianity; but church members cannot be too thankful whose regular Sabbath fare is "wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine which is according to godliness." I feel strongly the importance of our students entering on their work with sound and enlightened views on this matter. They have not to invent any new truths, but to preach with all the earnestness and affection of which their renewed natures are capable, the truth which ever has been, and ever will be "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." A thousand times better were it that their tongues should cleave to the roof of their mouths than that they should substitute any human fancies or speculations for the sincere milk of the word." You have to preach the gospel, said Matthew Henry in an ordination charge, not make it. 66 2. The ministry we want can only be obtained by prayer. Evangelists, pastors and teachers are the gifts of our ascended Lord, and are to be thankfully accepted as evidences of his love.-Jer. iii. 15, Ephes. iv. 11-12, 1 Peter, iv. 11. A succession of pious promising students cannot be too highly valued or prayerfully sought. No President of a Theological Institution can make a young man an acceptable and efficient minister, apart from natural endowments and the inward call of the Holy Ghost; but when the Lord has given to any one these natural gifts, and there is an inward call to the work, the guidance of an experienced minister will be of invaluable service. The passage cited at the commencement of this paper—Matt. ix. 38, has been sometimes read "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would thrust forth labourers into his harvest," and the original will well bear this rendering, for the term is often used where something like violence is intended. May it not be said of some who have been eminently wise to win souls, that the restless earnest desire they have had to engage in the work, their preference for it above all other engagements, their feeling that they could not be happy in any other path, have been the means by which the Lord has thrust them into the harvest, just as Christ was "driven into the wilderness," (it is the same word in Mark i. 12, as in Matt. ix. 38) not by external violence, but by a powerful and resistless impulse from the Holy Spirit? Prayer for Theological Seminaries should be much more frequently made, and in such prayers we should often ask the Lord that wise instructions may be blessed with hopeful students, whose profiting may appear to all. 3. Our churches may, in various ways render invaluable help to the Institution. Besides prayer, to which reference has just been made, enlarged pecuniary aid is highly desirable. The Academy has a powerful claim, on the score of justice, on those ministers who have enjoyed its advantages, and on the churches that they serve. And all who are anxious for the enlargement of our body, and the advancement by our means of the kingdom of Christ, must feel the importance of adequately sustaining our only Theological Seminary. It is much to be deplored that the funds placed in the hands of the committee have been so scanty, and have evinced so small an amount of interest in this important public institution. Let a generous confidence be exercised in the officers entrusted with its * Mark i. 12, Luke iv. 29, John xii. 31, and other places. |