with merely catechising her children or instructing them in the leading principles of religion, but she would frequently take them separately into her chamber, and endeavour to impress their infant minds with a concern about their everlasting salvation. Her pious endeavours were very successful, and she had the happiness of seeing the seed which she had sown, soon spring up in the hearts of her children. It was a custom, we are told, in the ab. sence of her husband, when her children arrived at the age of fourteen to put them on the exercise of family prayer: in consequence of which, it was not remembered, that this duty had ever been once omitted in their house for more than forty years*.

When about eight years old, the house being one evening full of company, Mr. Thomas Reader had not a convenient place for his secret devotions; but unwilling to omit what he knew to be his duty, he went into his father's wool loft, to enjoy the pleasure of communion with God. At first he was disturbed with childish fears on account of his lonely situation, but afterwards his mind was so filled with thoughts of God, and the joys of religion, that he soon forgot the gloominess of the place, and was free from every kind of alarmı. During his childhood, a

Several of their children enjoyed the benefit of her excellent instructions. We shall mention three; the eldest of whom was the late Rey. Simon Reader, educated under Dr. Doddridge; and who, for more than fifty years, was a judicious and laborious minister of the Gospel to a Dissenting congregation at Wareham, in Dorsetshire. He was a man of such extensive learning, sound sense and piety united, as this age has seldom produced. He is known to the world by a volume of excellent sermons on the parable of the Ten Virgins. The next was, Mr. Samuel Reader, who died at Coventry Nov. 7, 1793, aged seventy. He was a woolstapler by trade, and was, for many years, an active and useful deacon of an Independent church. His disorder was the stone, attended with extreme pain; and terminated, in six days, a life that had been spent in the service of Christ. The violence of his complaint precluded much conversation; yet it was evident that he possessed peace of conscience and resignation to the will of God. On the Tuesday afternoon, two days before he died, waking from sleep, he exclaimed, in a kind of ecstacy, “Well, well, all is well! Blessed be God, I can say all is well for me" Soon after, his minister coming into the room, observed to him, that he seemed to be in great pain but that he was in the hands of God,—of a good God. To which he instantly added, with a loud voice, and with a peculiar smile, "Aye, and of a very good God too!" These were some of the last words he uttered. And the Rev. Thomas Reader was the youngest of these three brothers.

person being on a visit at his father's, Mr. Reader was apz pointed to sleep with him. After the gentleman had retired to his chamber, Mr. Reader knocked at the door, requesting him to let him go through his room to an inner closet, which he used to frequent for the exercise of prayer. Without making any inquiry, the stranger knew the design of his request; and as he himself had hitherto lived in the entire neglect of this necessary duty, his conscience severely smote him: "What," thought he, is this little child so anxious to obtain a place for secret retirement, while I have never prayed in my life?" It led him to very serious reflections, which were followed by a divine blessing, and were the happy means of his conversion, and he afterwards became not only a consistent Christian, but a valuable minister of the Gospel of Christ. At the age of fifteen, Mr. Reader was taken into church fellowship with the religious society at Bedworth, as his worthy brother, the Rev. Simon Reader, before him had been at the age of fourteen. It was his early prayer, which he frequently repeated, "that God would fill his head with schemes for his glory, his heart with his love, and his hands with his work;" and the Lord very liberally granted his request.

As the Rev. John Kirkpatrick, M. A. the Dissenting minister of Bedworth kept a private academy for the edu cation of young men for the service of the sanctuary, Mr. Reader, when very young, was committed to his care, and under his tuition he went through a course of classical and academical learning. He soon gave such evidence of his abilities and piety, as were very pleasing to his parents, and very encouraging to their future hopes. After he had finished his academical studies he spent a few months with his learned brother at Wareham, and came forth a very acceptable preacher of the Gospel. His character and worth were now so generally known, that he received invitations from four or five charches in different parts of the kingdom very remote from each other. But having consulted with his friends, and sought direction of God, he settled over a religious society at Weymouth, in Dorsetshire. Here he continned for several years, labouring in the vineyard of his Master with diligence and success. From Weymouth, in 1755, he removed to Newbury, in Berkshire,. where his faithful ministrations, his heavenly deportment,

and

and his salutary counsels, gave great satisfaction. He was zealous for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, which he discovered in his public preaching, his constant visits to his people, and his general conduct. His visits he always endeavoured to improve by profitable and religious conversation. He was anxious for the welfare of the rising generation, which led him statedly to instruct the younger part of his congregation in the Assembly's Catechism; and as he had the art of descending to the capacities of children, he was happily successful in instilling religious truths into their opening understandings. During his continuance at Newbury, notwithstanding his diligent endeavours, he did not know that he had been useful in the conversion of sinners; and therefore, when a division took place in his church, he thought it his duty to remove. But after he was gone, he had the happiness of finding that his ministry had been blessed to many of his hearers.

After the death of the pious Mr. Pearsal, of Taunton, the church and congregation assembling at Paul's Meeting, invited Mr. Reader, at Mr. Pearsal's dying request, to the pastoral office among them. Mr. Reader however bad then no inclination to leave Newbury. But in 1771, being again destitute of a minister, the congregation at Taunton, after many fervent prayers to God for direction, gave him a second pressing invitation. Judging that a larger field of usefulness here lay open before him, and carefully observing the footsteps of Providence, he now thought it his duty to comply with their repeated request. He continued at Taunton for more than two and twenty years; where, till death put an end to his labours, he was a watchful and active shepherd over the flock, which God had been pleased to commit to his care. In every situation in which he was placed, he acted with a dignity and fidelity becoming the character of an ambassador of the adorable Saviour. His heart glowed with love to his divine Master, the very name of Jesus was precious, and his honour and interests were dearer to him than his own life. He knew the worth of immortal souls; he saw that sin unpardoned involves eternal misery in its consequence, and that guilt, however lightly esteemed by some, is an evil which nothing less than a hell can punish, and a God could expiate. Impressed with these very important ideas,

he

he could not behold the eause of religion with an eye of indifference; but was "instant in season and out of season, repoving, rebuking, exhorting with all long suffering and doctrine." He was bold in reproving sin, and faithful in proclaiming the truths of the Gospel. "He did not shun to declare the whole counsel of God." Though there was a peculiar gravity in his manner, it was very remote from the appearance of austerity. His style and address were plain and familiar; except in his frequent illustrations of the prophetical parts of Scripture, in which it is sometimes, perhaps, almost imposssible to preserve an uniform simplicity of expression. He never suffered, however, his familiarity to degenerate into meanness or levity. Animated as Mr. Reader frequently was on other topics, he displayed a more than usual vigour when describing the person or mediation of Jesus. He gloried in the cross of Christ; and conscientiously adhered to a resolution he had formed, never to preach a sermon, without hinting, in some part of it, at the method of salvation through faith in the Redeemer; so that a stranger, who had never heard the Gospel before, might have an opportunity of learning the way to the kingdom of God.

Mr. Reader, for several years, on the Lord's day morning besides preaching a sermon, regularly expounded the Old and New Testaments. Lamenting the general neglect of what appeared to him an obvious part of the ministerial duty, and determining, if possible, to recommend the practice of it by his own example, he usually allotted three quarters of an hour to this profitable exercise, in which he eminently excelled. He paid a close attention to the connection of his subject, and carefully examined the idiom and construction of the original Hebrew or Greek, in order to discover the meaning and energy of the sacred writings, which he was convinced our present translation does not always preserve. His remarks were solid and pertinent, his reflections natural and striking, and he deserved the character of a judicious and useful expositor. In no part, however, of his public labours did he so much discover his fervent piety and the heavenly frame of his mind, as when he was employed in administering the Lord's Supper. On an occasion of this nature, not long before his death, he appeared particularly affected. After speaking with more than usual earnestness of the in

6nite evil of sin, the love of the Redeemer, and the value of an interest in Christ, "We had need," says he, " frighten ourselves from sin, because it cleaves so closely to us. If we mortify it, we shall have a kind of omnipotence in prayer; but if we indulge it, we shall have no power at all, at a throne of grace.' Presently after he added with a smile of divine pleasure, "Now Christians, when Christ says in your closets, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee," your hearts are ready to burst with love to him; but if he is so precious now, how will you be able to support under a heavenly load of joy, under an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory?" As he was unwearied in his endeavours for the salvation of the souls of ethers, he was anxious to promote the life of godliness in his own. His religion was not confined to the house of God, nor was it a momentary thing, nor a fluctuating principle, but we may almost say that the whole of his life was an uniform scene of piety and holiness. As he was enabled to walk humbly and closely with God, he enjoyed much of the pleasure which real religion affords. His disposition and behaviour were always seriously cheerful, and he had such a continued sense of the favour of God, that he declared to a pious friend (a short time before his death), that he had not had a prevailing doubt for more than forty years." Such a confidence will be treated by some as merely a fancy, or the effect of enthusiasm; but when we contemplate the humble, active, and holy character of the venerable man, we are obliged to confess that his faith was a rational principle, and a root that was planted and nourished by nothing less than the power of God. He had the art of introducing serious discourse in an easy and natural manner, and of supporting it with cheerfulness and vigour. As he was once on a journey, he fell in company with a stranger; and unwilling to omit an opportunity of "saying something for God," (as was his frequent expression, he gradually introduced the subject of religion. His fellow-traveller at first was not a little surprised at such a very unusual topic; but appeared to be very attentive. This conversation, however new or unexpected, the stranger never forgot; it made him very thoughtful about the state of his soul; and though before entirely destitute of religion, he afterwards became a worthy member of a church of Christ in Dorsetshire,

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