On the Duty, Happiness, and Honour of main- taining the Course prescribed to us by Providence VII. On the Discouragements of Pious Men . VIII. The Vanity of Man apart from his Immortality. 380 XIII. The Lamb of God-his Character-his Sacrifice -and his Claim to Universal Attention The Advantages of Civil Government, contrasted XV. The Enlargement of Christian Benevolence XVII. The Joy of Angels over a Repenting Sinner XVIII. Nature and Danger of Evil Communications A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE REV. ROBERT HALL, A. M. ROBERT HALL, whose Works are collected in the volumes now published, was born at Arnsby, a village about eight miles from Leicester on the 2d of May, 1764. His father was descended from a respectable family of yeomanry in Northumberland, whence he removed to Arnsby in 1753, on being chosen the pastor of a Baptist congregation in that place. He was not a man of learning, but a man of correct judgment and solid piety, an eloquent and successful preacher of the gospel, and one of the first among the modern Baptists in our villages who aimed to bring them down from the heights of ultra-Calvinism to those views of religious truth which are sound, devotional, and practical. He was the author of several useful publications, of which one, the "Help to Zion's Travellers," has gone through several editions, and is still much and beneficially read, on account of its tendency to remove various often-urged objections against some momentous points of evangelical truth. He was often appointed to draw up the "Circular Letters" from the ministers and messengers of the Northampton Association. One of these letters, published in 1776, presents, in small compass, so able a defence of the doctrine of the Trinity, that it might be advantageously republished for more general circulation. This excellent man died in March, 1791. His character has been beautifully sketched by his son, who, in one sentence, while portraying his father, with equal accuracy depicted himself:-" He appeared to the greatest advantage upon subjects where the faculties of most men fail them; for the natural element of his mind was greatness." The wife of this valuable individual was a woman of sterling sense and distinguished piety. She died in December, 1776. Robert was the youngest of fourteen children, six of whom survived their parents. Four of these were daughters, of whom three are still living; the other son, John, settled as a farmer at Arnsby, and died in 1806. Robert, while an infant, was so delicate and feeble, that it was scarcely expected he would reach maturity. Until he was two years of age he could neither walk nor talk. He was carried about in the arms of a nurse, who was kept for him alone, and who was directed to take him close after the plough in the field, and at other times to the sheep-pen, from a persuasion, very prevalent in the midland counties, that the exhalations from newly ploughed land, and from sheep in the * See vol. ii. p. 369-371 |
