from community of sentiment.

He told me, that,

to the latest hour of his life, he should never forget that conversation; that it made so deep an impression on him, that he did not forget one single sentence; that after hearing him converse almost during the whole day, he returned with his companions to Cambridge at night; and each determined, with an earnestness they had never felt before, to devote themselves unreservedly to the promotion of the Gospel of Christ. The party wrote down the heads of that interesting conversation but, added my friend, I had no occasion to write it down, for it was impressed indelibly upon my memory; and that day stands distinguished amongst all the other days of my life, like a day spent in Paradise*.

My father continued his ministerial labours till he began to find his faculties impaired by age. He then had wisdom and fortitude enough to retire from that work, which, he said, required all the highest and noblest faculties of man. He used to observe, that the Levites, under the Old Testament, were dismissed from their service at the age of fifty; and collected from it, that God, who is the most gracious and tender of masters, did not require that His servants should exert themselves any longer than while their full powers and faculties continued.

[The narrator of this interview was the Rev. Charles Jerram, Vicar of Chobham, Surrey; and one of his companions was the late Rev. Thomas Thomason of Calcutta.]

Here the Memoir prepared by the Rev. John Venn abruptly terminates. Much as this circumstance must be deplored, it will be some relief to reflect, that his main object had been accomplished; namely, that of tracing accurately the progress of his father's mind in religious knowledge and attainments.

The last twenty years of Mr. Venn's life were marked by no peculiar or striking events. His intercourse with the young men at Cambridge, which has been already described, is to be regarded, I conceive, as his chief sphere of usefulness during this period. Several of the most eminent and laborious ministers of the generation which is now well nigh passed away might be mentioned as having been visitors at Yelling, during their residence in Cambridge. One of the earliest amongst the number was the late Rev. Thomas Robinson, Vicar of St. Mary's, Leicester; who, as his biographer informs us, took Mr. Venn for his "prototype" in the discharge of his ministerial duties.

And here I cannot refrain from alluding to the still more important advantages which his society afforded to some who remained in the University; and who have been honoured in their turn, as the instruments of fostering, directing, and establishing the piety of a multitude of young men, who have each successive year left college, to enter upon the duties of the ministry. The Rev. Charles Simeon, Fellow of King's College, and the Rev. William

Farish, Jacksonian Professor, are names which will already have occurred to several of my readers. The time is not yet arrived in which I might be permitted to review the influence of the labours of these excellent men upon the cause of Religion in general, and of that Church in particular of which they have ever been amongst the most firm and efficient friends. But, whatever value may be attached to their labours, will reflect back an importance upon Mr.Venn's connection with Cambridge : for they willingly acknowledge how much they owed, under God, to his judicious and animating counsel. On this point I am furnished with the following striking testimony, received from Mr. Simeon when the foregoing Memoir was submitted to his perusal.

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I most gladly bear my testimony, that not the half, nor the hundredth part, of what might have been justly said of that blessed man of God, is here spoken. If any person now living, his surviving children alone excepted, is qualified to bear this testimony, it is I; who, from my first entrance into Orders, to his dying hour, had most intimate access to him, and enjoyed most of his company and conversation. How great a blessing his conversation and example have been to me, will never be known till the Day of Judgment. I dislike the language of panegyric; and therefore forbear to expatiate upon a character which is, in my estimation, above all praise. Scarcely ever did I visit him, but he prayed with me, at noon-day, as well as at the common seasons of family worship: scarcely ever did I dine with him, but his ardour in returning thanks, sometimes in an appropriate hymn, and sometimes in a thanksgiving prayer, has inflamed the souls of all present, so as to give us a foretaste of Heaven itself: and in all the twenty-four years that I knew him, I never remember

him to have spoken unkindly of any one, but once; and I was particularly struck with the humiliation which he expressed for it, in his prayer the next day.

"C. SIMEON."

The leisure which Mr. Venn enjoyed at Yelling enabled him to keep up a very extensive correspondence; and the present volume will sufficiently prove how much advantage his numerous distant friends derived from the labours of his pen.

After he left Yorkshire, he generally spent a few weeks in each year in London. On these occasions, he preached many times in the week, as well as on the Sundays. Numerous audiences were collected: his sermons were listened to with the deepest attention, and he received many testimonies of their usefulness. His own spirit was much refreshed by these visits; and his clerical friends were accustomed to hail his arrival amongst them as a season of peculiar pleasure and advantage. When he visited London in the spring of 1791, he declined, for the first time, appearing in the pulpit. In the autumn of the same year he engaged a permanent curate for Yelling, the Rev. David Evans; and, after that period, seldom officiated, even in his own small and retired church.

In other places, upon one or two particular occasions, he was prevailed upon to address a congregation; and the partiality of friends would have persuaded him that he could still speak with power and effect, and that he ought not to desist from preaching; but he replied, that, in his better days, it had been his decided judgment that ministers should retire from the public discharge of their office "when

they had lived to the dregs of life," and that he would now abide by his former judgment.

The age of sixty-eight may seem a very early period for withdrawing from the public duties of his office; but his constitution had never recovered from the effects of excessive exertion at Huddersfield, and old age came prematurely upon him.

The many temporal mercies which surrounded Mr. Venn in these evening hours of his life were the theme of his constant gratitude and praise. His family consisted of a son and three daughters; one daughter having died in childhood. The character of the son is not unknown to the public. I will only therefore add the words which were a thousand times on Mr. Venn's lips: "A wise son maketh a GLAD father." His eldest daughter, Eling, was married, in 1785, to the late Charles Elliott, esq., of Brighton; who, at the time of his marriage, was engaged in business in London; and was well known as an early and steady supporter of several of the Religious Societies, the establishment of which adorned the commencement of the present century. In Mr. Elliott, fervent piety was united with great intelligence and activity of mind: his veneration for Mr. Venn was truly filial, and he enjoyed a full return of parental regard and affection; so that his connection with the family was a source of the highest gratification and comfort. Mr. Venn's youngest daughter, Catharine, married the Rev. James Hervey, M.A. His second daughter, Jane Catharine, remained under his roof, and watched over him to his last hour, with devoted and tender assiduity. A strong understanding and well-furnished