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; Robert Goodwin, Esq., 235, George-street, and Religious Institution Rooms, 12, South Hanover-street, 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: WILLIAM STEVENS, PRINTER, 37, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR. THE EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE, AND MISSIONARY CHRONICLE. FOR JUNE, 1854. MEMOIR OF THE REV. ROBERT WEAVER, OF MANSFIELD. THE late Rev. Robert Weaver was, during fifty years, pastor of the Independent Church at Mansfield, and through that lengthened period maintained a course of exemplary holiness and consistency, and of ministerial fidelity and diligence. The annals of an unbroken pastorate, extending over so long a period, furnish indeed but scanty materials for the biographer; while for the people of his charge, no other memorial is requisite, than their own remembrance of his uniformly excellent spirit and example, his untiring occupation in his Master's service, and the integrity, purity of motive, and singleness of purpose that characterized his whole course to its final close, and made him an object of veneration and esteem to all who knew him. As, however, Mr. Weaver deservedly held a high place in the regard of contemporary, and not a few surviving ministerial brethren, and Christian friends beyond his own immediate sphere, it is desirable to note such incidents of the comparatively quiet tenor of his life, as may be generally interesting, and to preserve some memorial of him to the church of God. Mr. Weaver was born at Trowbridge, Wilts, January the 23rd, 1773, and was providentially and remarkably preserved after being laid aside as dead. His VOL. XXXII. parents were both pious, and careful to bring up their children in the fear of God, being themselves descended from parents whose constant prayer was, that their children's children might be blessings in the church. Of his mother's devotional spirit, Christian affection, and gentle but firm government, he often spoke with strong feeling in his latest years. Her judicious anxiety was not uncalled for, since, though none who knew him would have supposed it possible, he himself states that he was in childhood of an ungovernable temper; and he remembered some, and had been informed of other very early outbreaks of passion, on which account he was sent to school at seven years of age, where he says the same temper continued, and that for some years he followed the example of others in evil. At this period he has recorded several instances of preservation from imminent destruction, in perils incurred by the natural fearlessness and daring of his disposition. Still he felt the restraining influence of a religious education, and as he had also very early been concerned for the salvation of his soul, he became subject to great terrors of a guilty conscience, and continual terrific dreams of the final judgment. The latter greatly alarmed him, and had a considerable influence on his spirit and conduct, and produced a gradually increasing seriousness and concern for his soul. The sudden death of his father, when he was about thirteen years old, appears to have rendered these impressions increasingly influential and permanent; and not long afterwards he became, by his thoughtfulness and the correctness of his conduct, the subject of persecution from his more thoughtless companions. At this time he was greatly aided by the care and encouragement of his pious schoolmaster, the Rev. John Cooper, between whom and his pupil a warm friendship subsisted in after years. Henceforward the state of his own heart, and the realities of an eternal world, became the constant theme of his thoughts; nor did he, earnestly as he desired it, readily come to the conelusion that he was a child of God. As stated by himself, he continued long under deep searchings of heart, with inward conflicts, and trials of doubts and difficulties, both as to his personal state, and also as to many doctrines of revealed truth, on which his inquisitive mind was already greatly exercised, and earnestly desired satisfaction. Some of his anxious thoughts at this time are recorded in written articles of reiterated, cautious, and often lengthened self-examination, in which, with scrupulous fidelity, he held the balance, to ascertain the preponderating evidence, for and against the renewal and sanctification of his heart. These mental exercises, some of them very severe, lasted for some years; and at the same time, circumstances in the church at Trowbridge prevented his uniting himself with them till the end of 1794. Soon after this event his thoughts and wishes were turned to the ministry, and on this important question he sought and obtained most valuable assistance from the friendship and counsels of the Rev. Nicholas Cross, of Trowbridge. result was a determination to resign his business, in which he had a good prospect of success, and in which many in the same town have since then risen to wealth. The The satisfaction he had derived in perplexity of mind from some of the writings of Dr. Edward Williams, led him to select Rotherham College for his sphere of study, where he entered in March, 1796. Actuated, as he ever was, by a principle of the strictest integrity and disinterestedness, and having a small income of his own, he took upon himself the whole expense of his board and residence at Rotherham, though both he and his excellent, affectionate, and generous-minded sisters, felt, and at times very anxiously, the burden thus laid upon their united but limited resources. Mr. Weaver, however, then and afterwards regarded it as a great privilege, that by boarding in Dr. Williams's own family, he was brought into more immediate intercourse and contact with that excellent man and profound thinker, between whom and himself was cherished a strong and mutual regard. His desire to benefit to the utmost in his theological studies, led him to prolong his stay considerably beyond the period usual at Rotherham, although he had entered with a much higher degree of classical attainment than most others; and he not only went through the entire course of Dr. Williams's divinity lectures, but also wrote them in full, from notes taken in the delivery, and preserved them, as revised by the Doctor, in two thick closely-written quarto volumes, which he highly prized. The congregation at Mansfield was then for some time supplied by students from Rotherham, which led to an earnest and unanimous invitation to Mr. Weaver to take the oversight of them. He agreed to stay with them for some months; but it was not for more than two years afterwards, and after repeated invitations and urgent and affectionate entreaties, seconded by appeals from neighbouring ministers, that he finally consented to accept the pastorate. There were, indeed, many discouragements to the undertaking, in the circumstances of the place; but it was not any of these that caused him to hesitate; indeed, the low estate of the people, and |