MEMOIR OF MR. JOHN SKIDMORE, THIRTY-THREE YEARS DEACON OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH AT COZELEY, STAFFORDSHIRE; WHO DIED MARCH 9, 1817, AGED 63. Pearces and Fullers, of the years that are past, who evidently " travailed in birth till Christ was formed in their hearts the hope of glory"-of those faithful, kind, and diligent officers and members of our churches, who were steadfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." IT is recorded by the sacred ters and Bunyans, the Watts's historian, that our dear Lord and Herveys, the Brainerds and Master "went about doing good!" and it may be confidently affirmed of all his genuine disciples, that they are ardently desirous of copying the bright example of their illustrious Leader. All real Christians live for the glory of God, and the good of their fellow-creatures; hence it is that they are justly termed "the salt of the earth,” and “the lights of the world." Objects are generally and properly esteemed in proportion to their utility. The builders of the Pyramids are buried in merited oblivion, but the well of Jacob still retains his name. And whose names are those that are ever fresh and verdant in our memory, "Oft breath'd in sighs, and utter'd with a tear?" Estimated by the standard of usefulness, I should claim no mean place among the truly pious for my departed friend and brother. It may indeed be affirmed of him, that he principally valued life because it furnished him with opportunities of glorify ing God, and doing good to man. In the early part of his illness, They are the names, not of the I requested him to give me a rich, of the noble, or of the am- brief outline of the way by which bitious, but of those excellent he had been "led through the characters who have been emi-wilderness" for more than forty nently useful in their day and years: he readily complied with generation-of those endeared my request. and affectionate parents, whose whole hearts were anxiously occupied in educating their children for a happy eternity-of those beloved ministers the Bax VOL. IX. "I hope," said he, "that my father and mother are in heaven: they were baptized at Bromsgrove when nearly seventy years of age, and departed this life Σ possessing a hope full of immor- | tality and eternal life. They often led me, when a boy, to hear the word of God at Netherton, where Messrs. M'Gowan and Mason were accustomed to preach. In the early part of my life, though blessed with pious parents, I lived but too long without God, and without hope in the world;' yet conscience often severely stung me, and plainly told me, that the way of sin was the road to hell. When I was about twenty-three years of age, I settled in life: my wife was a member among the Wesleyan friends. I accompanied her to the house of God; I was particularly gratified with the singing, and my heart was often much affected with the petitions which were addressed to a throne of grace on my personal account. "Under the preaching of the word of God, the impression, of which I had long been conscious, of the importance and necessity of being religious, and of my wretched condition as a sinner and a wanderer from God, were much deepened, so that I often shed tears at the recollection of my past life. I frequently went into secret places to pray; I saw myself a miserable perishing sinner, and I had the most solemn and affecting views of death, judgment, and eternity. I began to know God in a different way to what I had ever done before; he appeared to me incomparable in holiness, justice, wisdom, goodness, and majesty. It grieved my very heart, to think that I had sinned against so excellent a Being. I had indeed a secret hope that I might possibly find mercy, but yet I was not without a high degree of fear lest he should cut me off in my sins, and send me, as I knew he justly might, to hell. I think I was a quarter of a year at least, earnestly longing for divine mercy, and praying and seeking after it. I often found some ease of mind, and my hope that God would be gracious to me was strengthened, by frequently pouring out my soul before him in a secret place in the pit in which I laboured, and to which I daily, and sometimes often in a day, resorted. I well recollect, that I had a tender. fear lest I should say or do any thing to offend God. "When I saw a Bible, I used to think what a wretch I had been to neglect this blessed book. It was the fervent wish of my heart, that the Lord would open my understanding to understand the scriptures. I have often heard you speak in the pulpit of binding the gospel to your heart; in those days I often literally bound the Bible to my bosom with unspeakable emotions. I fear that my wife, though a professor of religion, was a stranger to real piety. When my mind was most distressed on account of my sins, I came home one evening, and as there was public worship, I determined to attend on it. She violently opposed me, and fastened the door. Not willing unpleasantly to contest the point with her, I silently went up stairs, and got through the casement. My mind at that time was exceedingly troubledI thought that I should certainly be lost: I stood still to pray as I went along, and I cried with great earnestness to God for mercy, as it really appeared to me that I was actually dropping into hell. I shall never forget that evening; while I was praying, heaven seemed to open around me; divine light, like a flash of lightning, brake in upon my mind; God appeared to my | trying at that period; we had a great deal of trouble in visiting disorderly members, who did not fill up their places in the sanctuary, or at the Lord's-table. I occupied the office of deacon among them for about three years. view arrayed in infinite loveliness, and as my reconciled God and Father through Jesus Christ. I could not contain my joy: I told all around me of the goodness and mercy of God. For a long time I enjoyed a savour of this divine visit; I immediately joined the society, and continued in it about three years. 66 "It is, I believe, thirty four years last December, since I was called by the providence of God to reside at Cozeley. The two families of Messrs. Thomas and John Smith had previously settled in this neighbourhood. They had gone to worship with the congregation at Dudley, a distance of about three miles, for more than seven years. I found it very inconvenient to go so far on the Lord's-day; and after I had been here a few months, I When I became acquainted with my present wife, I found that her views had been altered respecting baptism, and some of the principal doctrines of the gospel. My mind had also, from a careful perusal of the word of God, become changed on the same subjects; we thought it our duty, therefore, to join the Baptists we were accordingly baptized by Mr. James Butter-proposed to our friends that we worth, at Bromsgrove, and we united ourselves to the Baptist society at Brettell-lane. The day on which we publicly devoted ourselves to God in this solemn ordinance with seven others, was eminently happy. We indeed, like the eunuch, went on our way rejoicing!' Never shall I forget the delightful communion we enjoyed with each other as we returned from Bromsgrove to Brettell-lane, to our own habitation. My mind was greatly elevated in praise and thanksgiving. "I met with much persecution among my companions in the pit, on account of my profession of religion. One man especially for some time was accustomed to curse me, and stripped to fight me; but God in great kindness kept me by his grace from speaking or acting improperly. "Soon after I joined the church, I was ordained deacon with the late Mr. Thomas Green. The state of the church was very Bre should endeavour to establish the worship of God among ourselves. After a prayer meeting to supplicate the guidance and blessing of God, we licensed a house, and invited the ministers around us to officiate occasionally. thren Thomas Smith and Baylis also supplied us. The house was thronged with attendants; and about a year and a half after the church was formed at Cozeley, I procured my dismission from Brettell-lane, and joined it as a deacon. Soon afterwards Mr. Bissell, who had been an Independent, and a member of the church at Gosnall, was baptized, and joined our little society. We built a meeting-house, and called Messrs. Smith and Bissell to be joint pastors: they accepted the call, and were ordained over us. Since their departure, you are personally acquainted with my history." I asked him, whether he was not sometimes alarmed to go so frequently into the coal-pits? and whether he had not met with heard a noise as if the coals above many remarkable deliverances? He replied, us were moving-I instantly leaped back, and was preserved-my poor companion, however, had his thigh broken, and was so dreadfully mangled, that he was scarcely ever well any more; his two sons also were under the coals that had fallen-we labour "Previously to my possessing a well-grounded hope of the pardon of my sins, I was oftentimes much alarmed, lest I should be cut off in my ungodliness, and perish; but afterwards I was not conscious of any timidity. I en-ed hard to rescue them, but were deavoured to commit myself, and all my concerns, into the hands of my heavenly Father. "I have, indeed, met with a multitude of deliverances. Large quantities of coals have often fallen around me; I have been in the most imminent danger, but yet have been preserved. To my own view it appears as if God had, on some occasions, laid hold of my hand, and led me into a place of safety. "I laboured in the coal-pits from my earliest years; and when a boy, I drove the horse with the coals from the extremity of the pit to the shaft: one day, a part of a pillar fell as I passed by it a piece of it cut me badly above my eye: I still, you see, retain marks of the wound, and shall carry it to the grave. I had once occasion to take a knob, or sperm, out of a rib of coal. I had been at work on it nearly two hours, and I could not stir it; a sudden thought darted through my mind, that I had better go away from it, and rest me a little-I did so-another man instantly took up my instrument, and the first blow he struck, the coals burst on him, and crushed him to pieces. "In another pit, in which I worked, a great quantity of coals had fallen in the night-I agreed with another man to set up a tree as a prop, to make the road safe for the horse to pass along; while engaged in this attempt, I much intimidated by the assertions of several of the colliers, that the foot-coal was coming down-if it had, they must have perished-if ever I prayed in my life, it was at that moment, that it might not fall, and it did not, till we had got them out of danger. "There was a man in one pit, in which I laboured, who was a great enemy to me: I had been often persecuted by him, and I had no doubt but that he was frequently watching to do me a serious injury. One day as I was going down the shaft, he threw after me a pair of tacklers, consisting of four heavy chains-they passed me nearly at the bottom of the pit-had they struck me, I must have been inevitably killed. I could mention many other instances; but there is no end to God's loving-kindnesses! Goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." He had not worked as a collier for many years; God had blessed him in his circumstances, and he was appointed bailiff over several large collieries. As a father, he was kind and pious; as a friend, affectionate and faithful; as a neighbour, "ready to every good word and work;" as a member of society, scrupulously honest and benevolent; as a deacon, an example to most of his brethren in office; as a Christian, sound in his princi |