NOTICES OF MR. FOSTER,

AS A

PREACHER AND A COMPANION:

IN

A LETTER

TO THE

EDITOR OF HIS LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.

BY JOHN SHEPPARD,

Author of "Thoughts on Private Devotion," &c. &c.

NOTICES,

ETC.

MY DEAR SIR,-In attempting compliance with a request from the family of our departed instructor and friend, I choose the form of a letter to you; both as giving occasion for the cordial expression of my esteem, and best suited to the mere sketches or glimpses which I have to offer; since any strictness in style or unity of method would be scarcely in accordance with materials so very slight and incomplete.

A glance at two or three pages in the manuscript of those detached thoughts which form an unexpected addition to the literary relics of our lamented friend, and previous acquaintance with a few only of the letters probable to appear in your collection, have shown me that the revered writer is in them his own best biographer. Such indeedwhere Christian sincerity of character exists-must be the case always, as to real development of mind and feelings; the more so likewise, in proportion as the traits of these have been deep, refined, and, in a great measure, latent.

I am conscious, therefore, that this attempt might very well be spared for even if it be found to delineate some features of our friend's character not untruly, his own pen will have given us these, undesignedly, with touches far more correct and vivid.

This remark does not apply either to your consecutive

detail of the facts of his life, or to the reflections which will be suggested to you by a careful examination of his manuscripts and correspondence. All that I can hope to present in addition to these, is a scanty remainder of impressions made on myself, chiefly at a period very long gone by, from the intercourse, teachings, and ministrations, of a “highly esteemed" pastor. Even in these, however strong at the time, there must be a dimness which I regret, from the lapse of years, and a memory not retentive.

Yet I feel that since our friend's decease, the re-perusal of parts of his correspondence, converse with those who shared his society, and recurrence to his published writings, have all conduced, like the means sometimes employed for freshening and reviving old pictures, to bring out those clouded and faded impressions somewhat more clearly.

*

I look back forty years, and in seriously doing this perceive that our "tale" of those days, and of the long subsequent interval, however swiftly reviewed in mere outline, can never be really "told," except in the awfully revealing and judicial day-light that draws near. It is (within a few months) exactly forty years ago, that I first saw our departed friend, arriving as a guest to my valued uncle, and at table with my still nearer relatives, long since vanished also. That retrospect affectingly verifies and illustrates what I find noted by me from a discourse of his in 1805, on Ezekiel vii. 10,—“ The time will arrive for each to say, Behold the day is come to sink from health and enjoyment into suffering; behold the morning is come which deprives me of that friend who was, as it were, the morning light to me." Being then only eighteen years old, and, while fond of books, very little acquainted with lettered or highly intellectual society, I was of course much impressed and deeply interested, even after high expectations previously * From 1844, when this letter was written.

raised, by the acute sense, prompt imagination, extensive reading, and various talent of our visitor.

On the then recent resignation of their pastor, correspondence had been held between my nearest connexions and the late venerable Robert Hall; a letter from whom (Dec. 26, 1803) names "Mr. Foster, of Downend near Bristol," as young man of the most original and extraordinary genius, of unexceptionable character, of the most amiable temper," and suggests "That as he is probably at liberty, it may be thought fit to apply to him."

а

Our much esteemed friend (my own kind counsellor through many subsequent years), the late Mr. William Tomkins, of Abingdon, who had known Mr. Foster at Downend, wrote, "His conduct has been, I believe, not only irreproachable, but every way consistent with his profession; his situation far from a lucrative one, but his mind of that cast that feels no uneasiness on this head, if his corporeal wants are barely supplied. Both places were well filled when I heard him, and it is said, notwithstanding the extreme sublimity of his ideas, the common people are very fond of him. This I account for from the great simplicity (not lowness) of his style. I cannot say whether he is likely to raise a congregation; he seems to me a unique in all his exercises, social and public; and it may be difficult to calculate upon the acceptance and usefulness of his labours or otherwise. Much must depend upon taste. He has the most fertile mind, accompanied, I am told, with a very benevolent heart."

These communications induced a request on the part of the church,* that Mr. Hall would solicit Mr. Foster's ministerial aid at Frome. His reply, after ascertaining Mr. F.'s willingness to visit us, (Feb. 1840,) confirmed the preceding statements as follows:-" His manner is not very

* Worshipping in Sheppard's Barton Meeting-house, Frome.