HYMN ON THE NEW YFAR. FROM the pleasant land of Hermon, May each year, each moment, bring me Friend to man, the Friend of sinners, Spared to another season, The Vocal Ashes of a departed Muse. THE Muse is dead! her ashes speak! From the cold tomb the accents break In soft but solemn tone; And virtually to all she cries, "My friends, direct your wand'ring eyes To this instructive stone. "No foolish epitaph it bears, Nor gaudy Pride's insignia wears, Nor gives the lie to truth; But teaches in emphatic sound Some lessons from beneath the ground, Alike to age and youth! "Reader, approach this shadowing yew, And let your tears the turf bedew, To mark the spoils of Death: Here, prostrate lie the young and old, The laurels of the wise and bold, And c'en the poet's wreath! "As in the bright reflecting glass, Eyeing its surface when you pass, An image starts in view; Tho' dark be the surrounding shades, A mirror's light the scene pervades, And shews a type of you. "Quick as the slant Auroral beau, "To conquer Death is heav'nly art ; And slew him on the field! "His righteousness a shield can form, To guard amid the angry storm, That sweeps along the dale, To turn the point of arrowy show'rs From principalities and pow'rs, Shot in the shadowy vale. Faith in his merits arms the soul, While Hope can ev'ry fear controul, And urge you in the fight: Then Christian in the valley sings, 'O Death! where are thy venom'd stings ?' Putting his foes to flight. So does a firm and valiant rock Of irritated waves, Till in disorder they retire, ADJUTO PSALM LXVIII. 4. Praise ye Him, Sun and Moon, &c. BRIGHT Sun! thou source of light and heat, Shine to thy great Creator's praise ! O'er the dark reign of solemn Night, Sparkle his praise, ye starry train, Shall Man, the noblest work of Heaven, Printed by G. AULD, Greville Street, London. EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE. MARCH, 1807. MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. JOHN KINGDON, PASTOR OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH AT FROME. [The former Part drawn vp by himself:] WRITE thine own life for divine inspection, as well as human. Before men read it, I shall know what the Lord says of it; and it is not he that commendeth himself that is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. I shall not affix my affidavit to what I may write; and say, "This is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth;" though I should not object to doing it to the first and last of these assertions. John vii. 18 has for some time forbid my complying with the request of friends; as also, what was once said by a dying good man, in a despairing frame, to persons who told him that he would be greatly praised after his death :-"Ah! it is a poor consolation to think that I shall be praised where I am not, and tormented where I am!" I have nothing good in me, but what I have received; and I have received nothing good, but what I have abused; and therefore I can have nothing whereof to boast: and by the time the Lord has had all the honour which belongs to him, out of all our performances, there will be very little honour left for us. John Kingdon's father and mother, William and Ann Kingdon, were descended from reputable parents, both in a civil and religious sense. They comfortably brought up five sons and two daughters, viz. Samuel, William, John, Ann, Mary, Edmund, and Joseph, carrying on a good trade in the woollen line, at Silverton, in Devonshire. They were much respected; and attended the public worship of God, mostly among the Dissenters, at Silverton, Thorverton, and Exeter. Dissenting ministers and clergymen often visited them at their house at Silverton. John Kingdon, the writer of this Memoir, was born at Silverton, December 6, 1750, O. S. where he went to school, first to Mr. Beare, and afterwards to Mr. Taylor; both of whom re garded the morals, as well as the instruction, of their scholars. At about ten or eleven years of age, I was, for some minutes, supposed to be dead of the small-pox; and the report of my death was spread abroad: and about my fourteenth year, I was bitten by a large mad dog; and was supposed to be infected with the canine disorder; but Providence blessed the means used by Dr. Chamberlain, of our town, to my recovery. About the year 1748, my father and Mr. Broadmead, another serge-maker, removed from Silverton, in Devon, on account of the frequent mobbing and combinations among the workmen there, to Milverton, in Somerset; by which means I had the great privilege of sitting under the valuable ministry of the Rev. Robt Day, of Wellington, about four miles from Milverton. In 1751, as that branch of the clothing business carried on by my father, became unproductive; and several friends, particularly a Capt. Kenwood, of Topsham, recommended my entering upon a sca-faring life, I accordingly, after learning navigation, engaged with Capt. Roberts, of Exmouth, master of the brig Two Brothers, to go with him to Waterford, in Ireland, for passengers and provisions; and from thence to Little Persentia, in the south-west part of Newfoundland, where we staid from May to October, catching and curing cod-fish, which we carried to Spain. We then took in a freight of Barrilla wine, &c. for London, with which we arrived on the Cornish coast on Christmas-Eve; and, in a heavy gale, were in danger of being driven ashore in Mount's Bay; and, afterwards in going up the Channel, received so much damage, as rendered the vessel unfit for sea. In the next spring, 1752, 1 went another voyage to Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Malaga, whence we brought a cargo of wine and fruit for Bristol; where we arrived in October, finding, to our surprize, our countrymen reckoning eleven days before us, thro' the alteration of the style. In the following spring, 1753, I got à birth on board the snow Minerva, Capt. Woolcombe, of Topsham, bound with bale goods, worth upwards of 30,0001. to Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, and Messina; and after discharging our cargo, we took in another of wheat at Leocatta, in Sicily, and carried it to Malaga; from whence we carried a cargo of wine and fruit to Poole, in Dorsetshire; and after discharging it, we returned to Topsham, which closed my sea-faring life. I have great reason for thankfulness to the God of my life for many reniarkable deliverances in heavy gales of wind, when on sea-shores, &c.; and I have still greater reason for thankfulness for God's restraining goodness in keeping me from the three easily besetting sins of scamen, especially in harbours, viz. drunkenness, swearing, and uncleanness. With sincere gratitude I appeal to Him, as knowing that during the whole of my seafaring life, he never left me once, either to be intoxicated with liquer, or to utter a profane oath, or to salute a foreign Woman; and for the honour of God's grace, and the manifestation of the truth, I now assert in my old age (in my seventy |