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    u GbKTLEMBNj * * Tfce last time I was called upon to address you in this place , I was naturally ted , by the recent untimely death of a friend and fellow-student of many of you /} - to avail myself of such an opportunity of attempting- to strengthen the deep

    impression upon your minds , of the shortness and uncertainty of human life ; and of the necessity of its right application , to yonr happiness and usefulness while you have it , to your satisfactory reflection upon it at its close , and to the final approbation and favour of Him who gave it you . I

    persuade myself that what I then said , especially that what was addressed to you under the sanction of a name , J to which some of you , at least , would be disposed to pay a more than common respect , was heard with attention and some improvement . But surely if any thing had been

    wanting * to deepen the impression , and establish it in your minds as a practical principle , the afflictive dispensations of this most eventful year must have effectually supplied it . I scarcely need to recall to your memories that ever-to-be-lamented event , which made us , from the throne to

    the cottage , a nation of mourners . Nor need I remind you of that sudden and awful stroke , so nearly following , and in a manner connected with it , § which presented so striking a warning to the youthful associates of the amiable victim of it , and indeed to all young persons , particularly to young ministers , of the necessity of

    being " always ready ; or advert particularly to the deaths of Other excellent friends , some by a lingering decay , || others by an equally sudden stroke , ^ f by which this institution , among many others , has in the course of the past year been deeply affected . —I would not , I cannot , throw over these events the cloak of oblivion ; they

    * The following references to names and dates , though not needed by an audience to whom the persons and events referred to were only too familiar , may be useful to the distant readers of the Monthly Repository . f John Stratton , Esq . See Mom . Repos . XII . 496 .

    4 " The Rev . Dr . Bufield , three of whose grandsons were students in the course of the iast two sessions . $ Rev . T . B . Broadbent , Nov . 9 , 1817 . See Mon . Repos . XII . 690 . || Mrs . Jones , of Greeuhill , Nov . 27 , 1817 . See Mon . Repos . XIII . p . 65 , for Mrs . Capped excellent memoir of her .

    Sf John Rhodes , Esq . of Halifax , Jan . 21 , 1818 . See Mon . Repos I-XIII . 140 , for a liiemoir by Dr , Thomson , almost the last article of his in the pages of the Repository .

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    will not , they ought not to be forgotten : but they ought , for the sake of afflicted survivors , to be touched with a . delicate end tender hand . "They are , and must be accompanied with a 4 bitterness of its own / which / the heart alone knoweth f but they are accompanied also , I trust—I know- — with a * joy of its own , with which the stranger cannot intermeddle /

    " But there is one severe loss of such recent occurrence , and the grief occasioned by it is so fresh , that I shall be in no danger of reviving sorrows , which have not yet subsided ; of re-opening * sources of affliction , which have not ceased to flow . I seem to find a void in the circle now

    around me ; which , how shall we hope again to fill ? I feel I want the cheerful animation of countenance , which we all contemplated with pleasure ; the keen , yet candid , spirit of observation , which suggested to me , as some of you will recollect , topics of useful remark for your

    benefit ; and J particularly feel that we shall all severely find the loss of our late excellent associate , when we retire from this place to deliberate on the measures proper to be adopted for the future prosperity of this institution , and for the

    general advancement of the great cause of Truth , Religion and Virtue . " But I forbear—it was not my intention to excite too strongly either your feelings or my own ; nor do I mean to undertake the arduous task of delineating the general character of such a man as Dr . Thomson .

    That has been already done , with great exactness and delicacy , by one who , next to his immediate family , must be the greatest personal loser by his death . My object , in recalling him to your attention

    at present is , to exhibit , more especially to you , my young friends , who compose the body of lay-students , some features of his excellent character , to which I should be happy to draw your attention , and , if possible , to engage your imitation .

    u And I address you , my young friends of the laity , on this occasion , principally though not exclusively , because , though he was educated for the ministry in this very seminary , previously to its removal from Manchester , he spent the greater part of his life as a member of a

    lay-profess ion . Having , from the most honour * able motives , which , though connected with the welfare of others , were known to few besides himself , relinquished , with great reluctance , the profession of his first choice , he did not , at the same time ,

    relinquish his religion , ' or any of the proper modes of testifying his attachment to it j he did not yield to the peculiar temptations which the profession which he adopted seems to present , to fall into a neglect of public worship » but while he was very sensible that , in ease * of necessity , mercy

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    Intelligence . — Manchester College , York . 463

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1818, page 463, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2478/page/55/