time, the hinder wheel of "a wagon loaded with furniture went over his body, and crushed him very much." It was a narrow escape. Says the father: "I went to see the place, to notice if I could trace out any natural means of preservation, but the more attentively I viewed it, the more evidently it appeared to be all of God." His prayer, "May this preservation be in Christ Jesus, and a prelude to his future call," was not in vain. That son, spared to more than four-score years, is, as he has been for many years, a deacon of the church of which his honoured father was the first pastor. And, what has few parallels, two of his sons occupy with him the office of the deacon.

Mr. Lambert lived in stirring times. In his house, which was in Castle-Street, and is now desecrated into a tavern, would be much conversation about current events. There was the American war for Independence, concerning which he was of opinion, "That, if the Americans had been overcome, the Dissenters would soon be crushed in England.” There was the French Revolution, with its morning of hope rapidly rising to a meridian of horror and a “dire religion stripped of God"—when a violent anti-Gallic spirit was fomented through this land by press and pulpit. Mr. Lambert mentions going, on the afternoon of a Fast Day, to hear the Rev. Thomas Dykes at St. John's Church, "who did little else" (good man though he was) "than to call the French wretches'." Then came the war with France; the victories of Nelson, the crowning victory of Wellington. Those days were dark against Dissent. Visitation sermons were inflammatory against Dissenters. A Dissenter was to many minds synonymous with a republican. Happily the

troublous times which Mr. Lambert feared were averted. The fire of Nonconformist liberty burned too brightly for the devices of a Sidmouth ministry, or the bitterness of a godless clergy to extinguish. In Mr. Lambert's diary is an occasional note on the Parliamentary Elections in Hull, and the bribery and debauchery then rampant. Under date March 31st, 1784, he has an entry which shows his anticipation of recent and still-needed reforms: "Was the power of electing made more extensive-and done by ballot-there would be more consideration, less confusion. No one would be tied to any party; nor could the lower classes be influenced, in the time of election, to vote on the side of the greatest number, from the hope of future gain."

As he sat at his table and talked of the events of worldarresting importance, or those of national or local interest, sometimes from these his conversation would wander to matters personal to himself. Interested, we may be sure, would be the home-circle when he told (Wednesday, Oct. 31st, 1798) the following "very pleasing and remarkable dream. I apprehended myself to be at the house of a friend, where I fell in converse with a Scotch gentleman, who was remarkably intelligent. We walked out together; the path lay on the side of a hill most delightfully situated, and very romantic the scene all around. Our conversation turned upon the brute creation, and whether they would be restored to a state of greater usefulness in the happy day when the Gospel should cover the earth. From that passage in Rom. viii. respecting the creature, it was concluded that in this season they would be in the same state, and for the same use that they were to Adam in a state of innocence. Here

we parted. After this I thought I was telling to another friend how much I had been delighted with his conversation, when a female of peculiar beauty in her form replied, "Have you never seen his writings?" Upon my answering in the negative, she presented a book bound in vellum, in form like a music-book, and written in the most beautiful manner. While I was looking on it, I thought she repeated the following sentence from it, in a most charming voice: The contemplative mind, when it launches on the ocean, beholds God's wonders in the deep. Object after object crowds upon it in long succession, till the great ocean itself occupies its thoughts. Finally it is led up to God, the great author and origin of all. This idea, like a sponge, absorbs and swallows up all the rest.' Here a noise roused me from sleep, and put a period to one of the most pleasing dreams I ever knew."

CHAPTER IV.—CHARACTERISTICS.

"I SEE him now, with his white wig and three-cornered hat, his dark blue cloak, his silver buckles, black silk stockings, and black small clothes." Thus an old lady of vivid memory spake to the writer of Mr. Lambert. Thus attired, he was seen in the week going from house to house among his flock; and, as an aged member of the Society of Friends recently said of him, “It was as good as a sermon to see him walk the streets." On the Sunday he went from his house (a three minutes' walk) to the chapel in his gown and bands. A broad, full-set man, with ruddy cheek, aquiline nose, shrewd bright grey eyes, he was a model of blended cheerfulness and gravity-the father and brother of his people. When he ascended the pulpit, it was a pleasure to listen to his clear and musical voice as it read the Scriptures, or in prayer led the congregation up to "our Father," or in persuasive or arresting words besought men to be reconciled to God. His printed sermons give but feeble impression of the spell of his living voice and message.

"Words that breathed fire are ashes on the page."

A local

He was lacking in peculiarities of tone and manner. wit and mimic was asked to "take off George Lambert." He went to hear him with that object in view. But he confessed that "he could make nothing out of him."

Mr. Lambert was on terms of intimate friendship with ministers of various denominations, and was wont to meet with others for fraternal intercourse at the house of the Rev. Joseph Milner, the learned master of the Hull Grammar School, and a little before his death Vicar of Holy Trinity. He loved all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ. But he did not sacrifice his principles to his Catholicity. Frequent are his recorded reasons for dissent from the Established Church. His constant appeal was to the Word of God. He was Nonconformist from whatever conformed not to that. The following quotation will give us a picture of those times. (would they were entirely past) and show how he brought everything into the light of the lamp of the Lord:"Wednesday, 24th (June, 1801). To-day there has been an Episcopal Confirmation held at Hull, and numbers have been confirmed in ignorance, error, and iniquity. Many have been asked no question-others have been confirmed twice in the day-some have offered their ticket to another—many young men who came out of the country I saw in conversation with common prostitutes before their resort-one person, I heard, went home drunk,-and all of them have solemnly vowed what they can never perform. I read over the service; and, if I had not been a dissenter in the morning, I should have thought it my duty to be one to-night. The Bishop tells God that they have all been regenerated, and assures them of their interest in God's favour."

Method marked all Mr. Lambert's proceedings. He was a man with an aptitude for business. In the opinion of some, perhaps, his one fault was his intermeddling with