a information from the Memoir' which filial piety has dedicated to his memory, we learn that Mr. Wilson was born in November, 1764; that his school advantages extended little beyond a good English commercial education; that, at the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to his father's business a silkman' and that towards the close of 1785, he was admitted into partnership with his father and cousin. As a boy he was quiet, thoughtful, and retiring, more given to books than to play; and, judging from the numerous extracts which he made and preserved, the habit of attentive reading which he early acquired, remained with him to a considerable extent in after life. The date of his first religious impressions is unknown. Probably they were received under the paternal roof, and as the result of domestic training. I have great reason,' said he, in 1808, 'to be thankful for good and pious parents, and especially for a gradual love which I have felt for Divine things.' The same sentiment occurs in one of his letters to the excellent Christian lady who soon after became his wife :What a great mercy is a religious education! How many snares and temptations do those who have been favoured with it escape! Not only do I reflect on this with pleasure, but likewise on the advantage of being brought up to an active and useful employment.? For the subsequent development of his early religious impressions, however, he was greatly indebted to the public ministry of the Gospel; especially at the Tabernacle. He was one of the children of the Tabernacle; entering into communion with the Christian society assembling there, shortly after the expiration of his appren ticeship. In March, 1791, he was married, at the Collegiate Church, Manchester, to the object of his choice, Elizabeth, younger daughter of the late Mr. Arthur Clegg, of that place, timber merchant, one of the founders of Mosley-street Chapel, and many years a valuable deacon of the Congregational church meeting there.' The effect of this union was greatly to increase his personal happiness, and to confirm his purposes of relative usefulness. It was in the spring of 1794, that the late Rev. Andrew Fuller visited the metropolis, for the purpose of collecting funds for the Baptist Missionary Society, then recently established. Mr. Wilson heard him preach at various chapels; and as the tendency of the discourses on such an occasion would be of a nature to enlighten and stimulate Christian benevolence, they appear to have found in Mr. W. a hearer prepared to receive the truth in the love of it.' One sermon especially, on Eccles. xi. 1-4, Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days,' &c., produced on him a deep and lasting impression. That his views of Christian obligation had for some time previously been acquiring breadth and power, is clearly apparent from his letters to Mrs. Wilson, hoth before and immediately after their marriage. The comparatively inexpensive style in which he commenced house-keeping leads to the same conclusion. Nor can we omit to notice the corroborative and characteristic circumstance, that the following sentences were written by him at the commencement of a private account book in the form of a ledger, begun in the year 1790, and copied into another begun in 1794: Prov. xxviii. 20, 22.-He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. "He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye. 'Deut. viii. 18.-But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is be that giveth thee power to get wealth. If rich, be not too joyful in having, too solicitous in keeping, too anxious in increasing, nor too sorrowful in losing. No man hath worldly things without their wings. A sermon like that referred to, therefore, was all that was needed, humanly speaking, to give to his pre-existing tendencies and dispositions, a more determinate practical form. The altar was already prepared; a spark from heaven was all that was necessary to kindle the fuel. He now saw, for the first time, that what he had been doing for the cause of God did not amount to the self-denial enjoined in the text; and that it was his interest, as well as his duty, not to content himself with the common standard of liberality, but to deny himself not only the luxuries of life, but also what may be deemed, by some, its necessaries.'. For many years prior to his father's death, he had been a member of the committees of several religious and benevolent societies; and had shown a growing concern for the diffusion of evangelical truth. When, therefore, he was chosen to succeed him as Treasurer, both of the Evangelical Society and of the Evangelical Academy, which had grown out of it, regularity of attendance at their meetings, and a lively interest in their prosperity, were no doubt expected from him. But this did not satisfy his convictions of duty. He saw the importance of the educational institution so clearly, and appreciated its value so highly, that he soon determined to consecrate his life to its service. On surveying the wants of the time, he felt that, by so doing, he should be most efficiently serving his generation.' And in the fourth year after his father's decease, he resigned his connexion with business, in order to devote himself to his chosen object. From this time, he lived for the college. Instead of detailing the principal incidents of his subsequent career in the order of their occurrence, we shall adduce them only as illustrations of his character, or to enforce the lessons which they are calculated to convey. Perhaps the first impression which a general reader would receive from the Memoir, respecting Mr. Wilson, and the idea which is most generally associated in the public mind with the mention of his name, relates to his pecuniary liberality. From the time he set himself apart to the service of God, he may be said to have been habitually dispensing his property, in various sums, for religious and benevolent objects. And the promptitude with which he gave, doubled the value of his gifts; the conditions on which he gave, especially towards the erection of chapels, were calculated to call forth the liberality of others; and the munificence with which he gave, showed that he enjoyed the Godlike pleasure of the act. The erection of three large chapels, almost entirely at his own expense, in less than ten years, at the cost of upwards of £25,000, is indeed a practical exemplification of a noble spirit of Christian enterprise, and well worthy of honourable record. According to a report entitled to some credit, he was in the habit of giving from a third to a half of his income. man But the bare statement of the sums which a man gives to the cause of God is a very unsafe criterion of his liberality. The who cast in the largest gift into the treasury' may have been the most niggardly donor there; while she who cast in the smallest sum, gave more than they all,' for it was all her living.' We are prone to confound the gift with the giver. The largeness of the former may excite our gratitude or admiration; but may afford no just ground for praising the donor. While men are lauding him for bestowing so much, God may be condemning him for bestowing no more. As a faithful steward, the question for him to consider is, not how much he is giving, but how much he is retaining. Now Mr. Wilson appears to have done this. He began right as a housekeeper, fitting up his house in a plain manner, not purchasing costly furniture, or adopting a superfluous style of ornament, but at the same time sparing nothing that would conduce to real comfort or domestic accommodation.' The following extract from the Rev. Dr. Philip's notes on the subject may be taken in illustration: In the application of his wealth, he was not forgetful of his family, and he regarded his children as having a right to expect that he should transmit to them the original patrimony which he had received from his parents; but he considered that they had no right to find fault with him as to the manner in which he might spend his income. The following anecdote will show the principle on which his expenditure was regulated. One day, being inclined to take a long walk, he asked me if I had any objection to accompany him as far as Stoke Newington, where I might see the mansion once possessed by Sir Thomas Abney, in which Dr. Watts spent thirty-six years of his life. The mansion was then uninhabited; and the house and grounds were for sale. Having shown me, with a glow of feeling above his usual temperament, the room in which the Doctor studied and composed most of his invaluable works, the bed-room in which he slept, and the turret on the roof of the house where he used to sit and enjoy the fresh air and the surrounding scenery, I remarked, "I am surprised you do not purchase this place, and come and live in it." His reply to my remark was quite in accordance with his character, and furnished me with a useful lesson, which I have never since forgotten: "I might purchase this place, and live in it," was his reply; "but the establishment it would require would consume all my income, and no worldly establishment would be a compensation to me for the pleasure I have in living within my income, that I may serve God with the surplus.”—p. 167. Here was Christian self-denial. He had asked himself the question, May I, a professed follower of Christ, consistently adopt such a scale of domestic expenditure, as shall leave me no room for the exercise of self-denial, and but slender and uncertain means for doing good to others? and having decided in the negative, he systematically adhered to the conclusion. In doing this, he might either have determined to assign a fixed proportion of his income to purposes of Christian beneficence, and to spend the remainder; or he might have arranged to live in a style which could only absorb a given sum, and to devote the entire remainder to God. He appears to have adopted the latter plan; conscientiously economising his resources in order to be generous. Beyond this, it is to be borne in mind, that he added his time to his property; so that, if the subject of calculation be, how much he contributed to benevolent objects, a rough guess should be formed of the fortune which he might have amassed by continuing in a lucrative business, and should be added to the sum total. During a period when men of trade were rapidly accumulating wealth, he was consecrating his time to the service of God. Days, every hour of which might have increased his capital, were devoted to the cause of Christ. In an important sense, he did but change one business for another. Few men could have been found more completely absorbed in secular pursuits, than he was in the great work of evangelisation. It became his calling.' Bales and invoices, cargoes and consignments, were not more familiar sounds in a mercantile office, than students and preaching, college and chapels, were, in his counting-house. Here he was daily occupied, and always accessible. His natural activity, and acquired habits of business, sanctified by the high object to which they were here devoted, found constant exercise in increasing the annual income of the college; in inquiring after and bringing forward young men of character and ability suited to the ministry; in encouraging and advising those who were preparing for the sacred office; in aiding their finances; in introducing them, at the close of their collegiate course, to appropriate spheres of labour; in lessening the pecuniary burdens, and promoting the efforts of others who were already engaged in ministerial duties; and, by an extensive correspondence, exciting others to an emulation of his own liberality and zeal for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Many a man of business regards the duty of the day as ended when he leaves the counting-house; but Mr. Wilson did not limit his attention to the sacred duties which he had imposed on himself to a given number of hours in the day. He was painstaking and indefatigable in his noble vocation. A student, who entered Hoxton Academy in 1792, thus writes to the biographer :-- 'While I was a student, it was the custom for us to go in turn every Lord's-day morning to the Bethnal Green Workhouse at seven o'clock, and preach to the poor inmates. Your father would, on a cold, dark winter's morning, be there-out of sight, to "hear how the students got on," and afterwards have a little private talk with the preacher. Well do I remember what a deep impression his kind and affectionate remarks made on me.' -p. 195. In the evening of the day, he was present at all the meetings of the various college committees. He was always ready to go to any part of the country where, by a collection or otherwise, the interests of the college could be served. If, during the vacation he went, for change, into the country, nothing could prevent him from being present again at the commencement of the new session. The erection of the new chapels to which reference has already been made, was constantly superintended by himself. In relation to one of these we read : 'My father constantly attended this chapel for some years after the opening. There being three services on the Lord's-day, he generally remained in the vestry during the intervals of public worship, taking with him such refreshment as he and those members of his family who accom panied him might require. He also attended the week-evening services: assisted in forming the church, and in conversing with candidates for communion.'-p. 312. 'I may, with truth and justice, designate my father the founder of Highbury College, for, in addition to his own liberal donation,* he was the chief agent employed in obtaining the contributions of others to a large amount.. He waited personally upon many individuals, addressed more by letters, and took several journeys into various parts of the country to collect donations, besides making applications to ministers for public collections. Without his powerful influence actively exerted, without his zealous efforts and indefatigable personal labours, this good would, I believe, never have been accomplished; at least, the amount raised would have fallen very short of the sum required. The new collegiate building may be considered as, at once, the crowning act of my father's munificence, and his own best monument.'-p. 398. Nor did he remit his laborious devotedness to the last. Old age found him at his post; and even when called to suffer he did not abandon it. We cannot but admire the stability of Christian character and purpose which Mr. Wilson evinced. His aim at usefulness was *He purchased the four acres of freehold land on which the college stands for £2100, and presented it as a gift to the institution. VOL. II. 3 L |