maintain myself. I have also bad an opportunity of contemplating men, manners, and morals to a very extensive degree; and finally, in an age of much infidelity, and surrounded by many whose principles savoured strongly of irreligion, I have built up a fabric of confidence in, and love for, that holy religion of which I am now a professor. To this I ultimately look as my future guide through life, and hope it will enable me to bear with fortitude those evils which may be in store for me; for who can expect exemption? In return for these advantages, I have to offer you my gratitude, and my affection; and let what will hereafter become of me, bear in mind that it is not in the power of any thing human to lessen either the one or the other. I am now preparing to undertake

what I cannot but consider as a most serious and weighty charge-the sole responsibility, as resident clergyman, of two parishes. So far as information is required, I hope I have not laboured in vain; so far as good resolution is concerned, I trust, I am not deficient: as regards my success and future conduct in this important calling, I pray God's assistance to enable me to do my duty, and to become a worthy member of the Established Church; a church founded on the purest and most exalted principles of unsophisticated Christianity, as delivered by its divine author himself, and confirmed and explained by his inspired successors. The character of a fashionable

22

MEMOIRS OF THE REV. LEGH RICHMOND.

parson is my aversion; that of an ignorant or careless one, I see with pity and contempt; that of a dissipated one with shame; and that of an unbelieving one with horror. I wish you to read a little book lately published, intituled, 'Dialogues on the Amusements of Clergymen.' You will be pleased with it, as will my mother also, I am certain. I am very busy preparing sermons for my future flock. It requires much practice to write with fluency and ease. Believe me to be, every sentiment of regard and affection,

with

"To Dr. Richmond, Grecian Coffee House, London."

"Your son,

L. RICHMOND."

Mr. Richmond was ordained deacon in the month of June, 1797, and took the degree of M. A. the beginning of July, in the same year. On the 22d of the same month, he was married to Mary, only daughter of James William Chambers, Esq., of the city of Bath; immediately after which, he proceeded to the Isle of Wight, and entered upon the curacies of the adjoining parishes of Brading and Yaverland, on the 24th of July. He was ordained priest in February, 1798.

CHAPTER III.

His entrance on his professional duties Remarkable change in his views and conduct, and the incident that occasioned it-Reflections on the foregoing event.

MR. RICHMOND appears to have entered on the ministry with the desire and aim of discharging its important duties in a conscientious manner; and he manifested such propriety of conduct in his moral deportment, and in the general duties of his new charge, as to procure for him the character of a highly respectable and useful young clergyman. A few months, however, after his residence at Brading, a most important revolution took place in his views and sentiments, which produced a striking and prominent change in the manner and matter of his preaching, as well as in the general tenor and conduct of his life. This change was not a conversion from immorality to morality; for he was strictly moral, in the usual acceptation of the term. Neither was it a conversion from heterodoxy to orthodoxy; but it was a conversion from orthodoxy in name and profession,

to orthodoxy in its spirit, tendency, and influence. But before we indulge in any further remarks, it is necessary to record the particulars of the occurrence to which we have alluded. Shortly after he had entered on his curacies, one of his college friends was on the eve of taking holy orders, to whom a near relative had sent Mr. Wilberforce's 'Practical View of Christianity.' This thoughtless candidate for the momentous charge of the Christian ministry forwarded the book to Mr. Richmond, requesting him to give it a perusal, and to inform him what he must say respecting its contents. In compliance with this request, he began to read the book, and found himself so deeply interested in its contents, that the volume was not laid down until the perusal of it was. completed. The night was spent in reading and reflecting upon the important truths contained in this valuable and impressive work. In the course of his employment, the soul of the reader was penetrated to its inmost recesses; and the effect produced in innumerable instances by the book of God, was in this case accomplished by means of a human composition. From that period his mind received a powerful impulse, and was no longer able to rest under its former impressions. A change was effected in his views of divine truth, as decided as it was influential. He was no longer satisfied with the creed of the speculatist-he felt a conviction of his own state as a guilty and

condemned sinner, and under that conviction, he sought mercy at the cross of the Saviour. There arose in his mind a solemn consciousness that, however outwardly moral and apparently irreproachable his conduct might appear to men ; yet within, there was wanting that entire surrender of the heart, that ascendancy of God in the soul, and that devotedness of life and conduct, which distinguishes morality from holiness-an assent to divine truth, from its cordial reception into the heart; and the external profession of religion, from its inward and transforming power. The impressions awakened were therefore followed by a transfer of his time, his talents, and his affections, to the service of his God and Saviour, and to the spiritual welfare of the flock committed to his care. But while his mind was undergoing this inward process, it is necessary to state how laborious he was in his search after truth. The Bible became the frequent and earnest subject of his examination, prayer, and meditation. His object was fontes haurire sacros-to explore truth at its fountain head, or, in the emphatic language of Scripture, to "draw water out of the wells of salvation." From the study of the Bible, he proceeded to a minute examination of the writings of the Reformers, which, by a singular coincidence, came into his possession shortly after this period; and having from these various sources acquired increasing certainty as to the correctness of his