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MR. HOPPUS was born in London, in 1761. Though he had not the advantage of a pious education, he always spoke with gratitude of the goodness of God in restraining him from those immoralities which are the ruin of so many youth. A memorandum states thus:

Before I arrived at ten years of age I felt somewhat of the necessity of a. change of heart, and frequent terrors at the thought of death and judgment. When about nineteen I was providentially drected to a room licensed for preaching the sermon, by the Rev. Hugh Davis, on Rev. iii. 20, made no impression, till my attention was powerfully awaked by a sudden storm of thunder and lightning, which struck a man dead. I returned home, and declared to my friends that I hoped no longer to neglect the concerns of my soul; and the Lord enabled me with earnestness to seek the knowledge of salvation." Mr.

H. joined the church under the care of the Rev. W. Bennett, Pavement, Moorfields. He also availed himself, on suitable occasions, of the pulpit instructions of the Rev. Messrs. Newton and Romaine; and the Rev. Rowland Hill

VOL. XVII.

greatly attracted his admiration on account of his fervent and zealous address.

Mr. Hoppus held a confidential situation in the house of Mr. Mead, cane merchant, in Leadenhall-street, whom he afterwards succeeded in business. His talent for his vocation and his fidelity were so much noticed by his employer, that not only was the most unlimited confidence reposed in him, but Mr. Mead, on paying him his salary, put down a larger sum than the agreement, declaring that he "was never so well served before." On being in business for himself, Mr. H.'s desire of usefulness increased with his opportunities. He sympathised with that school of Christians, which sprung from the labours of Whitefield, whose "Letters," detailing his labours in Britain and America, were always perused by Mr. H. with delight. The very name of their author was sufficient to animate him to earnest conversation, when oppressed by bodily affliction and declining years. Indeed, such was his admiration of the zealous spirit of Whitefield, as recorded in his history, that to feel and to express the same sentiment in the

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hearing of Mr. H. was one of the readiest avenues to his friendship.

Mr. Hoppus felt deeply interested in the formation of the London Missionary Society, in 1795, and he accompanied the ship Duff down the Channel, to Spithead.

So zealously did he sympathise with the missionaries to the South Seas, in their undertaking, that but for his relative connexions he would gladly have joined them. His first efforts in preaching were in workhouses, and other places in and near London. He opened his house and his heart freely to those who were anxious to do good. He warmly attached himself to the London Itinerant Society, and was one of its founders. Under his roof many of its first meetings were held, and other benevolent societies were organized. "Mr. H. and others," says the Rev. J. Smith, an intimate surviving friend, "used, for several years, to leave London very early on Sabbath mornings, and travel ten, and even twenty miles, to preach out of doors, and in private rooms. Some of the places were Lewisham, Sydenham, Norwood, Dulwich, Mortlake, and Ealing; in all which places his preaching was very acceptable, and generally useful. Oh, for the humility, the fervour, and the zeal he manifested to the last! The effects of these purely disinterested labours continue to this day." On one occasion, at Lewisham, a lady, who through domestic trouble had resolved on suicide, and was on her way to commit the deed, passed the door of the place, where Mr. H. was at that moment speaking of the sin of Judas, who "went out and hanged himself." Hearing the preacher's voice, she entered, was much struck with his earnest manner, and applied the subject to her own case. She told him in a subsequent interview, that he had been the means of "saving both body and soul." On another occasion, an actress became a teacher in the Sabbath-school. During his continuance in London, he thus persevered in laborious usefulness as a lay-preacher. A weekly meeting for prayer was constantly held in his house, and many young men made their first efforts in exhorting within its walls. Some who attended these meetings were afterwards fellow-students with Mr. H., and still fill influential stations as pastors in the church of God.

About the year 1801, the East India Company required the site of Mr. H.'s house of business, in order to build the

western wing of the India House. He now resolved to follow more fully his desire for the Christian ministry, and to give up for this object a profitable trade. The motives and spirit which attended this determination may be learned from the language of a letter written about this time by his pious and excellent wife, who was Miss Mary Weston, of Pentonville. "The Company have purchased our house. I trust we shall be directed for the best, firmly believing that Mr. H.'s desire and aim is the glory of God, and the good of souls. Help us to lay this matter before the Lord."

Mr. Hoppus now removed to Newport Pagnell, to avail himself of the Academical Institution for the ministry, at that place, over which the Rev. W. Bull presided. Notwithstanding Mr. H.'s want of a learned education early in life, which he always regretted, his shorthand manuscripts attest that he attended diligently to the study of divinity and ecclesiastical history; and that his aim was to qualify himself as much as pos sible for being a useful preacher and pastor. A surviving fellow-student says, "I could not but remark how ardently he seemed devoted to the work of the ministry. He conciliated all by his kindness, as an elder brother of the fraternity. Our meetings at his house, with select readings by Mrs. H., and our free conferences and prayers, I distinctly remember, among many other benefits we enjoyed at that academy." Another fellow-student writes, "He took me as a young Christian most tenderly by the hand, and showed me singular kindness, together with his truly amiable, prudent, and eminently pious partner. I shall be mindful of their friendship as long as I live. He was highly esteemed by our worthy tutors, by his fellow-students, and, indeed, by all the good of that town and neighbourhood."

Mr. H. having received a unanimous invitation from the Independent church, at Yardley Hastings, Northamptonshire, a village of from eight hundred to a thousand inhabitants; he was ordained at that place, in May, 1804. He de clined other invitations, one of which was from Berkhamstead; as he thought himself more suited to a village congre gation, and the hope and encouraging prospect of usefulness caused him to devote his labours to a people who most affectionately received him, though their means did not enable them to offer him

any temporal inducement. At this time, the church consisted of only nine members, and the congregation of about forty persons; but it was soon found necessary to erect a gallery and re-model the interior of the chapel. This was done by voluntary subscription in London and the country; and as there was no house suitable for the minister, a commodious one was erected, by the same means, adjoining the chapel, by the liberal permission of the Marquis of Northampton, the ground-landlord. The house, as belonging to the chapel, is now occupied by the present minister, the Rev. Mr. Spong. The Sundayschool, formed and conducted by Mrs. H., became a nursery for the church. Mr. H. paid great attention to the young, and a regular weekly meeting was held on Saturday evenings at his house, for the catechetical instruction and the encouragement of such young persons as appeared religiously disposed. It was also his custom to invite some of the members of his flock to join him in family worship on the Sabbath evening, after his pulpit labours. These meetings proved very useful to many.

On the evening of the new year, he used to preach to young people, generally in a pointed and impressive manner; after which many tracts were distributed. Among the means of his usefulness, village-preaching occupied a prominent place, and he was the chief agent in exciting the attention of the inhabitants of several neighbouring villages to the gospel, sometimes in the open air. For many years he preached on stated evenings in the week, at Denton, Easton, and Grendon, as well as at Yardley; and he frequently visited Brayfield, Bozeat, Ravenstone, Lavendon, and other places. He greatly excelled in pastoral visitation from house to house, and was much in the habit of introducing religious conversation in families, and in the workrooms of the lace-makers. He had a very happy method of dropping a word of religious advice to persons whom he accidentally saw at their worldly callings. In this he was very useful, not only by conciliating the minds of some, but often in planting deep and permanent impressions.

In the year 1813, in the midst of great pastoral success, a fire took place, which destroyed many houses in the village, and the chapel with them, which had stood nearly a century. The house also

would have been consumed, but for the presence of mind of Mrs. H., who, in her husband's absence, directed the special attention of the men who came to help, to a trap-door communicating between the house and the burning roof of the chapel. This grievous trial would have overwhelmed a inind of less energy and enterprise, as the people at Yardley were totally unable to defray the expense of a new building. Mr. H., however, immediately set about the arduous task of appealing to Christian generosity; and, after many months' of unwearied labour, raised a sufficient sum in the adjacent counties and the metropolis, to erect a chapel of twice the size of the old place. A gallery was afterwards

added to accommodate the still increasing congregation.

Notwithstanding the manifold increase of the church, and the affection that prevailed among its members, it is not to be supposed, that during a pastorate of thirty years, Mr. H. did not share in the trials of the faithful minister. He often lamented that his hands were not more strengthened by the conversion to God of such as might have proved influential in discountenancing vice and immorality by an exemplary life, in consequence of their better circumstances. In some cases his fidelity gave offence. It is regretted that space will not allow of any extracts from the faithful and solemn appeals which he has left in manuscript, as made to the young, or to the members of the church, especially in one instance, in which abuses, requiring their aid to correct, had crept into the economy of divine worship, as regarded the psalmody.

In the spring of 1820, Mr. Hoppus was bereaved of his excellent partner; whose loss was not only severely felt in respect to the conjugal and maternal relations, but also by the village in general, especially by the young and the poor. Mr. H. afterwards married Miss Rebecca Berril, and this connexion proved a great solace to the latter period of his life.

After having been accustomed till his 72nd year, to preach three times on the Sabbath, increasing infirmities induced him to resign the pastoral office, and he was succeeded for four years by the Rev. J. Bunn, under whose ministry two galleries were added to the chapel. The last sermon Mr. H. preached at Yardley, was on May 4, 1834. In the autumn of the same year he preached at Walgrave,