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    little chapel . jBere he delivered a Sunday evening lecture , occasionally assisted by others . He generously resolved that his neighbours / the inhabitants of his native village , should not Want means of religious improvement . -. < - ¦ .

    Though engaged in the management of temporal coHderas ( miller and banker ) , which werecoiiducted on a large scale , he never neglected the duties of the ministry . At home and abroad he did not lose sight of his work . At i&e Annual Assembly ,

    held in lA > ndoti on the Whitsun-week , he regularly attended , as also at the annual associations in the country . He was often seen likewise at the quarterly meetings * either preaching or advising for the welfare of the churches . Such

    was his zeal and activity . Nor was it with his own denomination alone he united for the promotion of rational piety . He attended the Kentish Unitarian slssoelation held at Maidstone , July , 1820 , where he was called to the chair at the public dinner , and presided ( as he had done a fortnight before at the General Baptist Assembly dinner ) with his accustomed cheerfulness and animation . H e

    intended to have met them at Tenterden this year , which illness prevented ; and even anticipated the pleasure of receiving them next year at Canterbury . Indeed , his soul was attuned to brotherly love and to Christian harmony .

    On the first Sunday of December ^ 1820 , he preached his Jubilee Sermon , for that day fifty years he delivered his first discourse amongst them . [ See Mon . Rep . present volume , pp . 159—161 . ] Three only of his hearers were present who had survived that occasion . He chose an

    appropriate text , Phil . i . 3 : I thank my God upon every remembrance of you . He introduced the subject by remarking , in these words : * My Christian > friends , having been long spared , and for fifty years a preacher in this society , 1 could not let the opportunity pass without addressing you on this occasion . Looking

    at the general estimate of a man's life my existence in a few years may close ; and , to use the words of Peter , I must put off this tabernacle ! But while I continue with you , I am sure you will suffer the word of exhortation . We are all

    children of the dust ; even the lives of the youn £ are not insured . Nathire every day is pouring vast tides of mortals intoeternltjr , and it becomes survivors to consider that life hangs upon a thread delicately fihfc and slender ; let us livte Wfcpared for the sdleirnnfehatogeT ^

    T # e ttt&ite of big hiinMry , he assured tliein , h 4 ( i tfctett 4 * p » e' ^ £ etopics , tU Z / Hi ^^/^ m ^^ 'Dm ^ e Mission of @hrht ; * an < t a Fu ^ Ure ^ -mm of Reward * atod > Puhisftfo ^^ l tWm him it was !

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    never forgotten , that / " this is life eternal to know thee , the only true God , and Je&iifc Christ whonr thou hast sent /' Ftoih a few passages in this Jubilee Sermon , in which he has concentrated the substance of his ministry ,. his own character may be delineated * ' i

    As a man , he was kind and generous He reminded thenv that ^ iC < placed in eligible circumstances he had > j like the apostle , *¦ ' coveted no mans . silver and gold , * nor had received , because he needed , no pecuniary remuneration ; yet he had from them what was infinitely more valuable to . himself—*» their prayers , their esteem , and their gratitude ?

    As a Christian he entertained the most cheerful ideas of the Supreme Being . ' * God is neither unjust nor cruel , nor partial , " ( says he , ) " but , on the iDontrary , infinitely amiable . Make him a tyrant , and though we may fear and dread Mm * yet we cannot rationally . love him . God

    is love . My aim has always been to > , justify the ways of God to man ; and wisdom will eventually be justified , at least of all her children . * ' These are truly scriptural sentiments , of which no well-informed disciple of Jesus Christ need be ashamed . Of his temper and spirit as a minister of Christ , take the conclusion of this

    disconse : € i My Christian friends , another ground of thankful remembrance is , that in this society we have never had commotions and divisions which some other bodies have experienced . Individual differences

    undoubtedly have occurred , but during my fifty years * connexion with you , both as a minister and pastor , 1 cannot bring to mind that the slightest difference has ever happened between myself and the church . Thanks be to the God of ! peace , the demon of discord has never , driven

    us from each other . ijLarmotiy has been the order of the day through the revolving days and years of half a century * May we still live as the disciples of the Prince of Peace , that we may reign with him for ever and ever !" On this paragraph , an intelligent friend , the Rev . B . Marten , remarks with truth

    that although his character and circumstances gave him a commanding influence in his congregation , —yet he never betrayed a lordly , dictatorial spirit , nor had ever been the master of their faith , but

    the kind and tender and constant helper of their joy . This Jubilee Sermon * ought to have been published and distributed amongst fris flock . It would 'form a memorial f of his labours *— -an honourable

    tribute of respect to his ministry < His graceful congregation , on this memoitable occasion , presumed him with a valuable $ i « 6 e'b $$ lafe , having this inscription : W o . iO'As a tribute of respect , Bee . 2 vH 820 ,

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    tf Obituary . ^ - The B&v . Sampson Kingefotd . 567

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1821, page 557, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2504/page/53/