BAPTIST MAGAZINE. DECEMBER, 1827. Memoir of the REV. JOHN CHERRY, | city he was able to gratify a proOF BAMPTON, LATE OF WELLINGTON, pensity he at that time felt, of at SOMERSET. In a memorandum written by himself, in the year 1784, he says, tending different ministers of the THE Rev. John Cherry, who was Gospel. He had no fixed home, no nearly thirty years pastor of the settled rest. This method he soon Baptist church in Wellington, So- found exceedingly unprofitable, and merset, was born in Bristol, of very calculated to cherish a specureputable and pious parents, who lative and contentious spirit; he were members of one of the Bap-therefore wisely determined to attist churches in that city. His tend statedly the ministry of the great grandfather was a dissenting Rev. Mr. Reynolds, who was the minister in Northamptonshire. pastor of the Baptist church assemThe God that heareth prayer bling in Cripplegate meeting house, was graciously pleased to answer Worship-street, at the end of Moorthe earnest supplications presented fields. to the throne of grace on his behalf, and to follow with his blessing the endeavours of his parents, to bring him up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" for he was taught to fear the Lord from his youth. The declaration and promise of the Saviour, to encourage the young early to seek him, "I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me," afforded him much encouragement; and he frequently dwelt upon this passage with delight, when addressing young enquirers after salvation. The Holy Spirit was pleased to work gradually, and almost imperceptibly, upon his mind, opening his heart, as he opened the heart of Lydia, to receive the truth as it is in Jesus. In this way his vain imaginations were cast down, and he was brought into sweet captivity to the Son of God. Soon after experiencing this gracious change, in the arrangements of an all-wise Providence he was removed to London. In this great VOL. II. 3d Series. I hope the serious feelings I have lately experienced are not the effect of bodily indisposition, or an enthusiastic disposition of mind; but the effect of the power of the Divine Spirit upon my heart: cherishing this hope, I made application for the solemn ordinance of baptism, that I may, in a public and devout manner, declare myself a willing servant of Jesus Christ, and unite in holy fellowship with his people." In what he calls a youthful remembrancer, written at this time, he says, "Behold poor me, standing before a pious and sensible society of Christians, at a distance from every familiar friend and relative, employed in making the most solemn declarations, and launching forth my little bark, for the first time, into the very ocean of ideas, without a helm, or hardly an oar to guide me; yet I humbly trust I experienced a gentle gale from above, that wafted me on, till at last I was brought to a pri 0 0 vileged seat among the children of means he would have been more the Most High God." As intimately acquainted with his peoThe time is not specified when ple, and, it is probable, made he was called to the work of the increasingly useful to them. ministry, but the writer has heard a compensation for this, he had, him declare, that it often afforded however, the satisfaction to know, him consolation to be able to call that many of his pupils received, to his remembrance, that he did when under his roof, those impresnot force himself into this sacred sions that were intimately connectoffice, but that he was invited to ed with their everlasting peace; it by the church; considering the and several of them are filling imvoice of the church to be the voice portant stations in the church of of heaven, he was induced to tes-God, having had " this grace given tify the gospel of the grace of God. them, to preach among the GenWith this view he was sent, by his tiles the unsearchable riches of pastor and the church he was con- Christ." nected with, to the Baptist Acadeny in Bristol, that he might be assisted in the attainment of that knowledge which, with the divine blessing, would be useful to him in the discharge of an office that involves in it eternal consequences. When he left the academy, he laboured for a short time at Halifax, in Yorkshire, much respected by many, who expressed their sincere affection towards him when he left them. From thence he removed to Wellington, as successor to that pious and devoted servant of Christ, the Rev. Wm. Day. In this town Mr. C. found himself surrounded with many pious and affectionate friends, and for nearly thirty years he laboured among them with acceptance and usefulness; and it is deeply to be regretted that any unpleasant circumstances should have rendered it necessary for him to remove, after so long a residence, from those who were for the most part the seals of his own ministry. The claims of an increasing family necessitated Mr. C. to engage in a school, the duties of which engrossed so much of his time and attention, that he was unable to perform those pastoral visits which would have imparted to himself much personal comfort, and by this It is not intended to exhibit Mr. C. as a perfect character, for he had imperfections, and who of the people of God are without them in this imperfect state? The natural warmth of his temper was a source of grief to him, and his friends had sometimes to lament that his mind was too unyielding, and his peculiarities may perhaps, in some instances, have prevented his usefulness. The fixedness of purpose with which he would pursue his plans, and the firmness he displayed in delivering what appeared to him to be truth, assumed, in the opinion of some, a tone that was too authoritative. But, notwithstanding he felt it an imperative duty to understand his principles well, and to maintain them with firmness, he felt it equally incumbent to deliver his views of truth with Christian candour; holding sacred the right of private judgment. His literary attainments were considerable, his general knowledge extensive, and, his mode of thinking being to a considerable degree his own, his statements were frequently original and impressive. He exceedingly disliked affectation, and certainly never aimed at popularity: it may be thought by some that he rather aimed at being singular, but his mind was too deeply impressed with the awful responsibility of his office to allow himself willingly to be influenced by this evil, in his ministerial addresses. ligation is intimately connected with a right reception of the Gospel of Christ, and consequently that all true believers delight in the law of God after the inward man. Mr. C. was especially a man of Nothing was more contemptible prayer. Many that did not adin his view than worldly policy mire him as a preacher, were highly in matters of religion. He well delighted with the beautiful simunderstood the nature of that plicity, the great variety, and the kingdom that is not of this holy fervor of his supplications to world," and he would often say, the Deity. In his approaches to that Jesus Christ required no the throne of grace, he often apcrafty, or or subtle, or worldly peared to experience intimate comschemes, to be employed in his munion with "the blessed and only holy cause; and that worldly po- Potentate ;" and those engaged licy in the cause of Christ bears a with him in devotion could frestriking resemblance to Uzza's quently say, "truly our fellowship putting his forbidden hand to sus- is with the Father, and with his tain the ark of God." Son Jesus Christ." As a preacher, Mr. C. adopted his own method of arrangement. His sermons were generally characterised for a clear exhibition of divine truth, a holy pathos, and an ardent desire that sinners might be reconciled to God; but it is acknowledged, that occasionally they were too abstruse. His occasional hearers, in the opinion of many of those who attended his stated ministry, heard him to disadvantage; as it was in his regular ministerial labours that the vast stores of his mind appeared, in the great variety of subjects upon which he would expatiate, and in the illustration of which he was "a workman that needed not to be ashamed." He was accustomed to assert that he was neither a high nor a low Calvinist, but that he was a Calvinist, as he believed the doctrines of divine grace, maintained by Calvin, to be the doctrines of the Bible. Those distinguishing doctrines of love and of mercy, contained in the glorious system of salvation, he constantly preached in their experimental and practical influence; insisting that moral ob He used to consider levity of spirit to be his easy besetting sin, and this made him often exclaim, with the apostle Paul, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!" But from the period of his removal from Wellington, about seven years ago, this propensity was corrected, and he was at times subject to great depression of spirits. It always pained him to think of the circumstances that occasioned his removal from a place that was endeared to him by so many social and religious ties; but as far as he considered the providence of God concerned in it, he expressed his willingness to bend with humble submission, saying, "O what trouble my heavenly Father takes with me, to make me meet for an inheritance with himself; but alas! notwithstanding this, I am so backward to close in with him, so unwilling to make Him my all!" It was not long after he was stationed at Bampton, a town about eight or ten miles from Wellington, that it pleased the Lord to take from him his beloved wife. He felt the stroke deeply, and in a letter written about this time, he says- are exposed to. There is no way "Desolate as I am, I will pray to of a corrupt creature being prebe enabled to be content in travel- served from the domination of such ling the remainder of my pilgrim- an evil, but by a daily, actual age alone; seeking to be wholly communion and intimacy with Jereconciled to my God, entirely sus Christ. There is no mode of conformed to his will. I am in the holding communion with him, but hands of my God; may he grant by his own ordinances; the profit me the blessed influence of his and enjoyment of all the others Holy Spirit, to conform me to his arise, according to the plan of God, will. That passage affords me from a persevering, uniform, selfcomfort As many as I love, I denying reading the word of God, rebuke and chasten.' And it is and of prayer in the closet. It thee, O Lord, alone, that knowest is ignorant and useless to expect what is in man. It is thee only to be preserved from the accursed knowest what must be rooted out of thing, to feel the life of God in the him for his final happiness. Enable soul, to grow in heart religion, to me, therefore, to endure to the have the spiritual enjoyment of end; enable me to realize in thy divine and spiritual objects, and hand the minuteness of thy govern- to feel Christ precious, without ment. Give me to believe thy this. The purpose of the Holy wisdom and the gracious purposes Spirit, in the inspiration of the of thy grace in every trying dispensation!" As a parent, Mr. C. was desirous to see his children reputable and comfortable in life; but he was most of all concerned for their spiritual and eternal welfare, as the following extract from his Will, dated the 27th of September, 1825, I will shew: "My children, hearken to your father, speaking to you solemnly from the grave. Love each other with godly sincerity. You are not only brothers and sisters by the blood of your parents, but professedly so by blood divine; bear in mind then that you are under the greatest obligations your infinite Creator can lay on you to love each other. There is one way to exercise this love to each other, which should inspire you with a disposition to exercise it in every other. Thou shalt not see nor hear of sin in thy brother, without timely, affectionate, unremitting expostulation. Keep each other from sin, and you will preserve each other from the only evil you Scriptures, is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Sigh, then, like the apostle Paul, that you may know him. The only saving process of personal religion, is the learning experimentally more and more of the need, the love, and the sufficiency of this only Mediator between God and man. Oh, aim, in the legitimate method I have recommended, to improve in an experimental knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall, you assuredly shall, improve personally in every temper that is amiable, in every affection that is pure, in every sentiment that is noble, in every faculty that is useful, in every action that is honourable, and in every feeling that is happy. May all your steps through life tend to the good of every one! May God indulge you with every temporal benefit that he can reconcile to your eternal welfare! May he bless each of you with eyes to see, and hearts to feel, all the goodness he will shew you! May he make and keep you believing, weeping penitents, the foot of the cross of his dear Son! May you join me at his right hand in the great day! I have shewn you the way thither." Conversing on the vast importance of true religion, he exclaimed, "Oh, how much more difficult it is to come to Christ than is generally supposed, that is, truly to come to him." Being asked if he found Christ precious, and to afford him support, he replied, "Yes, he is my support, my only support, my whole support." About five minutes before his death, he very pathetically supplicated"Lord Jesus, help me through this valley!" and sweetly fell asleep in Jesus, March 13, 1827. The last few years of Mr. C.'s life were embittered, through the low and distracted state of the church at Bampton, as well as through the distressing feelings occasioned by the breaking up of his former connections. He would at times exclaim, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me! Oh, that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest!" But he was very The Rev. J. Singleton, of Tiverjealous of every wish to shrink ton, improved his death at Bampfrom that discipline which, in the ton, from Rev. xxi. 4, 5; the Rev. unerring wisdom of God, he was J. Baynes, at Wellington, from led through. He spent a chief Heb. xiii. 7; the Rev. Mr. Cuff, part of each day in private devo- Independent Minister of Wellingtion, and amidst the many mortifi- ton, from 1 Pet. v. 4. cations he endured, he pursued THOS. WINTER. what he conceived to be the will Bristol, Oct. 17, 1827. of God, with a degree of stedfastness and firmness which could only arise from an enlarged mind, receiving continual supplies from an incorruptible source. THE FIRST MURDER. Genesis iv. To the broad earth's farthest verge Woe is me! my brother's blood It His illness was very short, being only of nine days' continuance; and as his disease was a fever of the worst kind, he was unable to converse much during his affliction. A sentence occasionally dropped from his lips, expressive of the state of his mind in the near view of eternity. "I wish," said he, To the contemplative mind, it "to die a weeping penitent at the must needs be a source of pleasure foot of the cross of Christ." When to survey the world when newly a friend intimated that he had de- created by almighty power. lighted to make known the doc- was designed by infinite wisdom, trines of this cross, he exclaimed, intended to illustrate the divine "Is it possible for such a sinner benevolence, and was built for the as I am ever to have been useful?" | residence of man, one of the noContemplating the rest that re- blest works of Jehovah. It premaineth for the people of God, he sented beauty and glory; its comrepeated those lines of Dr. Watts,pletion was celebrated by the songs of angels; and its great Creator pronounced his work "all very good." Man in a peculiar sense was happy. The earth and its di There on a green and flowery mount And with transporting joys recount |