Death and Funeral of Mr. James Castleden,

LATE OF HAMPSTEAD.

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THE demise of this venerable and highly-process of time, some untoward circumstance esteemed servant of the Lord took place, on Lord's-day morning, June 4th, 1854. No minister, throughout the whole of his career has commanded and maintained more esteem among the churches throughout this kingdom, than the late James Castleden. We have therefore gathered together the chief incidents connected with his life, death, and burial, and present them to our readers as a small tribute of respect to his memory.

occurred, which led him to feel very un-
his native town, where he carried on the
comfortable, and he left the Quaker's and
business of a draper, and came to London.
Here he went about to hear various ministers,
in particular Dr. Jenkins, and Mr. Hunting-
ton, under whom he was led to see more and
more his state as a sinner. Eventually he
united with the church at Walworth under
the pastoral care of Dr. Jenkins. During
his membership there, he married his late
wife Elizabeth. Shortly afterwards he was
visited with great darkness and distress of
mind; and in this state, he was led to hear
the late Samuel Eyles Pierce, under whose
ministrations he profited much. He left Dr.
Jenkin's church, and united here, where for
nine years he honourably sustained the office
of deacon. It was whilst here that he began
to go out preaching-he was pressed to speak
sometimes at home. He began preaching at
Stanmore, to which place he continued to go
more or less until he went to Hampstead.
There he preached to a few people in a large
room until the year 1818, when the present
(Bethel) chapel was built on Hollybush Hill,
and a church formed, the late Mr. John Stevens
delivered to him a faithful and affectionate
charge. From this it will be seen that he
was thirty-six years pastor of the church here.

James Castleden was born at Faversham, in Kent, in the year 1778. His parents were thorough-going church people of the old-fasioned sort; that is to say, they esteemed it to be their duty to go to church, and having gone to church and read their prayers they were contented. But young James Castleden had very early ideas of a God; and would often worship him in his way. One circumstance might here be named, which had much influence on his mind in after years. When he was quite a lad there lasted for some length of time, an intense drought, which caused considerable alarm throughout the country. He had heard that the Lord heard and answered prayer-and that the Lord would grant any thing asked for by a believing heart. So young James Concerning his last illness and death, but Castleden-attiring himself as near as he little can be said. In August, 1853, he was could like a clergyman, took the prayer-book attacked with paralysis, which so impaired in his hand, and most earnestly read the his mind and body, that he was unable to read prayer for rain; and it rained that evening. his bible, or preach much afterwards; but He has often said that that childish act of so far as his strength would admit, ashis has many times encouraged him to ask sisted at communion, and at the prayer meetthe Lord for things he needed. In course of ings-for he was not one of those men who time he began to think more of religion; say-"It's ONLY a prayer-meeting!" His but it was not till he was about seventeen mind at times appeared much impaired from or eighteen years of age that he had any the effects of the stroke; and Satan took adidea of his state as a sinner. He was then vantage to distress his soul. Whilst labouramong the Wesleyans. They got him to ing under one of these attacks, a friend said pray; and thought he had abilities for to him: "It shall be well with the righteous, preaching. He had when very young had in life and in death." The good old man resome notion of preaching, and used to set up plied, "It is well." A short time before his sticks for an audience, to whom he used to death, in the middle of the night, he said to preach in his way. At last he did preach, the friend who was sitting up with him, “ Can and of course obtained a bad character for it. we not have a prayer-meeting?" His friend He did not continue long with the Wesley-replied "Yes" He then read a portion of ans, but went among the Quakers, where he heard a female address the people from the words: "O that men were wise, and would consider these things;" something said at that time left an impression on James Castleden's mind, which time never effaced. In Vol. X.-No. 114.—July, 1854.

Scripture, and sung Mr. Castleden's favorite hymn, and the venerable old man delightfully took his part. A friend asked him, "Can you trust the Lord now?" With vehemence the dying man replied, "Oh, yes: He has cared for me more than seventy-six years ;

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THE LATE JAMES CASTLEDEN.

and shall I be afraid to trust him now? I should think not!" He spake most blessedly while he was able, but could not do so for some little time previous to his death; yet even then he appeared to be engaged mentally in prayer to his God—until at about a quarter past 12 o'clock, on Sunday morning, the 4th of June, 1854, in peace, the happy spirit of James Castleden winged her flight to the realms of everlasting bliss.

THE FUNERAL

took place on Monday afternoon, the 12th June, when many of his old friends assembled at the little chapel to pay their last tribute of respect to the departed venerable pastor. Mr. Phillip Dickerson read a portion of Scripture, and in an affectionate and impressive manner addressed the throne of grace.

Mr. John Bloomfield, of Meard's Court, then addressed the people; of which the following is the substance.

I have been unexpectedly called upon by the respected officers of this church to give you an address on the solemnity and blessedness of the death of a man of God. I should very much have preferred being a hearer, seeing there are so many ministers here my seniors. Death to the servant of God is solemn and blessed-'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord :" die in union to the Lord, in the favour, in the righteousness, and hope of the Lord. The good man dies in the embrace of Jesus, in the love of Jesus, in the arms of Jesus, and for Jesus, and to be with Jesus for ever. Death to the ungodly is fearfully terrific.-He is driven away in his wickedness. He dies unwillingly; and truly awful his death is! He dies hopeless and Godless. The good man has a home to go to. It is an infinite mercy to have a home in the presence and glory of God. The Christian thinks of home as he passes through the wilderness. He sings of it, and says, 'Home, sweet home! there is no place like home.' Hell will be the prison of the wicked, but it is not home. The prisoner is punished and confined in his fearful dungeon, but he never calls it his home. The Christian has a home, and it is a good home, a happy home, and a glorious eternal home. This world has been God's large schoolroom in which he instructs and prepares his children for their blessed home. The death of the man of God is absolute gain. Paul says, For me to die is gain; and if our religion be like Paul's, death will be gain to us. The man of God gains an everlasting emancipation from sin and every trouble. He gains better associations and a better state of things; he lives after death in the presence of the Redeemer; he reads God's character, covenant, and truth in the mirror of the glorified person of the Saviour; he enjoys perfect and uninterrupted intercourse and communion with God; he loses nothing but that which is an absolute loss and degradation to possess; and he possesses dignity, triumph, and dimless glory, and everlasting pleasure in a sinless and tearless world. I know good people are frequently in bondage respecting death-they tremble at death and eternity—but what is death? It is a dark-robed angel sent by God to open the prison doors and

to knock off the fetters of his saints. It is a dark-robed angel it is true; but it is God's servant or messenger after all to his people. It makes me think of going to Clifton some years since to see a good lady there. I went to the house and knocked at the door, and a fine black servant appeared: he quite startled me.

And

So are many ransomed sinners frightened at
death, although he is nothing but a black servant
who opens the door of our Father's celestial house.
Our aged brother was prepared to die; although
he might be dark at times, yet he died in the
Lord; he fell asleep in Jesus; he triumphed
through that precious blood he preached to others
for many years. Death is a terrible extinguisher
to the worldly inan, it is a terrible dissolver of
earthly ties, but the true Christian has a property
Real religion
which he will not lose by death.
is a property that is heavenly, not loseable, and
everlasting. It will take the good man to heaven,
and the good man will take it to heaven. The
speaker then closed his address by a piece from
R. Blair's grave; and said Mr. Gittens, who
knew intimately the departed would now address
them.

Mr. GITTENS said: "A few words, dear friends, and but few. Allusion has been made to my intimacy with your late departed minister. It has been an intimacy of the closest character; and I have always considered him to be a man of God who demanded our Christian regards and respect. But I do not think this, or any other, a time to eulogise a creature. He had filthy rags, but they were taken away, and God has for ever wiped away all traces of them; and why should we say anything of them?" But these occasions always speak loudly to all. To the hoaryheaded it says, You soon must follow him. am some years younger than our departed friend; but that time will very soon pass away. I sometimes seem astonished at the rapid way in which time flows on. I can look at seats now where those sat who now are gone for ever; and all you too must speedily follow. Life is uncertain-death is certain; and to the Christian this affords comfort: for though daily trials come, yet he has also daily divine aid and strength afforded. With the ungodly it is the opposite-all his supposed happiness is on earth; he seeks it here and there, but it is as a phantom: he tries for it, but it eludes his grasp; still, he tries hard for it, until at last he finds himself upon the verge of a fearful precipice-eternity. Oh, what an awful sound to the unbeliever! But to the child of God, how pleasant! An infidel writer has asserted that eternity, or the world beyond the present, is like a black curtain, through which no human ken can penetrate. Aye, true; but to the believer this black curtain is rendered transparent; and, by the aid of his Bible, he is led to anticipate the joys in reserve for him in the upper and brighter world. Well, then, we have lost a kind friend. I could have wished that his last days had been brighter days; but they were what God appointed them to be. There are very many we could not have spared so well as we could James Castleden. God had in a measure taken from him his

THE LATE JAMES CASTLEDEN.

ability; and he has left behind him here no weeping wife and fatherless children.* So that we have nothing of this sort to weep about. And it being so, we cannot but rejoice that God has removed him from this world of misery and woe. We will therefore commend his body to his God, praying that we may all be enabled to end our days as honourably as he did.

Mr. WARN, of Endon, concluded the service in the chapel by prayer.

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My

James Castleden, and George Coombe, were
three great public characters, known far and
wide; and were found engaged in all the
solemn and important services of the day;
and to these for many years my heart was
knit, knowing them to be sanctified servants
of the living God. I was called upon to
preach my brother George Coombe's funeral
sermon; and also, in connection with my
brother Murrell, dear John Stevens'; and
now I am to preach James Castleden's.
first acquaintance with him was in the year
1822. I went fourteen miles to hear him and
John Stevens, at the late Mr. Player's place,
at Saffron Walden. He wished me to preach
Jesus Christ, and not eulogise James Castle-
den. I have a long account here, given me
to read, of his life and death; but I would
not descend to the sick room, to find evidences
of the genuineness of a man's Christianity-I
say, I would not stoop to that. When a man
has lived for so many years in open demon-
stration of the divine authenticity of his min-
terial labours and Christian life, it would be
a sort of a denial to it all to go down to the
sick chamber to find evidences thereof.

Mr. COOPER, of New End, read the hymns. The mortal remains of the deceased were then removed into the road, and was borne on the shoulders of four men; the pall being held by Messrs. Disney, Evans, Fenn, and Warn. Immediately behind the corpse, were twenty-seven males, attired in the sable habiliments of woe; amongst whom were many ministers of the gospel. Behind these walked in pairs a very great number of the friends and admirers of the deceased. The procession thus formed walked down Holly Bush Hill, through the High Street, (where many of the principal shops were closed, from respect to the departed), and onwards to the parish church of Hampstead, in the church Mr. Foreman here detailed some outline of yard of which lay deposited the remains of Mr. Castleden's life, which we have embodied his dear wife. The procession was met at the in our sketch at the commencement of this church gates by the Rev. Thomas Ainger, paper. The preacher then went on to say he the highly respected incumbent, who there could track the progress of these three friends commenced reading the burial service for the (Messrs. Stevens, Coombe, and Castleden) dead. The corpse was then taken into the over nearly every county in England. church, when the incumbent, in a most regards Mr. Castleden, he was not an eloquent solemn and truly impressive manner, read speaker; but there was a mellowness, a freshthe very appropriate service as appointed by ness, and a pithiness about his ministry. His the Church of England. The corpse was words would drop with savour; and God atthen removed into the church yard, and tested it by bestowing his blessing upon it. lowered amidst the clods of the valley, "earth They were three spreading trees; but are now to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure cut down to blossom in another and purer and certain hope of the resurrection to eter- sphere. They were three spiritual trumpeters nal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ." The-but they have now ceased to blow the procession then returned to the chapel, in the same order, when several took tea.

The venerable JOHN ANDREW JONES, the oldest friend of the late James Castleden, preached to the people in the evening.

The Funeral Sermon

was preached at Hampstead, by Mr. JOHN FOREMAN, on Lord's-day evening, June 18th, 1854. The little chapel was crowded in every corner; and not even standing room was attainable shortly after the commencement of the service.

Mr. Foreman introduced his discourse as follows. Christian Friends: our meeting together this evening has a simplicity about it; and I think a divine authority for it. We have not met together to say high mass to get our brother out of purgatory. We know of no such stuff and nonsense. We have not met to ask God to bestow any blessings on our departed brother; for we know well that he is beyond reach of the want of them; but we have met to contemplate and to celebrate those things which were so eminently displayed in the life and death of James Castleden. Some few years since, John Stevens,

*We are given to understand that his only living daughter is in Australia.

As

trumpet here, and are gone to join the song above. They were three glorious messengers of peace here; but they have ceased to bear tidings to man, and are gone to enjoy the fruit of their labours. Mr. Foreman then took for his text 2 Chron. xxiv. 15, 16—

"Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died: an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died: and they buried him in the done good in Israel, both toward God and toward city of David, among the kings, because he had his house."

After some short introduction the preacher divided his text as follows:

1. The character. 2. The deeds. 3. The

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THE LATE JAMES CASTLEDEN.

She

God says, they are I myself generated A praying man is a

we speak of all. Jehoiada signifies, "the know- | mother, and her child is lying up-stairs.
ledge of the Lord;" from which we may adduce
that it is one that knows the Lord. Now, my
brethren, depend upon it there is a dignity set
upon the soul that knows the Lord, that has no
equal in earthly dignities. Is there any one that
knew our departed brother-and has joined with
him in prayer-that would dispute James Castle-
den's being a Jehoiada in his knowledge of the
Lord and Saviour? This will account for a
man's actions. Head knowledge is one thing;
but the intuitive teaching of God the Holy
Ghost is that whereby the heart is consecrated to
his service. Scholastic advantages are good in
their place; but unless the heart is made alive
by God the Holy Ghost, they are of no use in
the pulpit. God says, "I'll give thee a heart to
know me." James Castleden had this. There
has been some demur about singing a favourite
hymn of his at the close of this service. I think
it very suitable. I have often heard him close a
service with it when we have been out together;
and he would stand up in the pulpit, and heartily
join the people in singing it. It is the 421st,
Denham's Selection.

"The voice of free grace

Cries, Escape to the mountain," &c.

If he had not known the Lord, he would not have stood there so long. Let us then each ask ourselves, Do we know the Lord? Truth is the rule of God's word. I do not say James Castleden was a perfect man: far from it: but we take the predominant features of his life throughout, and judge thereby.

II. The deeds. "Because he had done good in Israel." I don't think there is a praying man but does good to Israel. James Castleden was a praying man. His prayers and preachings were the means of doing good in Israel. Though small, yet for a considerable time, a flourishing cause met in this place. He was the means of taking many a poor sinner by the hand, and shewing him the way to heaven by the cross of Christ. He would

66

point to his redeeming blood, And say, Behold the way to God !"

A praying, hearing people, and a praying, preaching minister, are of incalculable benefit the one to the other. He was then of great use in Israel. Many were enlisted under the banner of Immanuel through his instrumentality. And you know when a recruiting party is seen going through a village with two or three recruits, there are various exclamations; and one says, There goes poor Bill So-and-so. Why, why did he want to go for a soldier? They ask him; and he replies that he could get no work; and it was for the want of a bit of bread; and so, when a man enlists into the regiment of our King Immanuel; there will be many crying out-Oh! what a pity he is turned a meetinger-I would rather anybody but him. Ask him what he enlisted for, and he'll tell you, for want of a bit of bread. All enlist for this.

Again he had done good towards God and his house. You will say, why, how could he do good towards God? Why, by taking hold of God's strength, through the medium of the promises. I would just use a plain figure to illustrate this point. Suppose two or three, or half-a-dozen persons to be in a house together. One is a

first hears it cry; and rises to see what is the
matter. Another of the party says, Oh, don't
disturb yourself; sit still; it will leave off di-
rectly. Still she insists upon going. Why, you
would turn that woman's brain if you stopped
her. So prayer affects our God. The woman
runs; she fears the child will be smothered.
Ask her why she is so. She will answer, because
it is my child, and I love it.
mine, and I love them.
them, and I love them.
useful man towards God when he addresses him
from necessity. Thus our departed brother did
good towards Israel and God. Our brother some
time since established mixed communion; and
very many were sorry for it. Why he did so
we cannot say. There were nine hundred and
ninety-nine points on which we were agreed;
and the other one only gave us surprise. When
the late Samuel Eyles Pierce opened his church,
James Castleden was the first and most violent
opposer; and still, he did the same.
It was, I
think, a little piece of weakness on his part; but
it was not much to his advantage, I think.
But
where is the man who is perfect ?
He was &
Bible man; a Bible preaching man; and a Bible
praying man; and the same power that made
him what he was, can make you and me the

same.

III. The honour. It is remarkable how the Scriptures take notice of the years of a man's existence. Our brother lived to be seventy-six years of age; thirty-six years of which were spent more especially as a stated minister in this place. I began my public ministry in March, 1816; so that I have been stated pastor rather Our brother longer than your deceased pastor. did exceed, and preach, too, beyond the usual He lived to a course of years allotted to man. good old age; and when so found in the ways Well, we have of godliness, what an honour! buried his body in the earth for the worms to But no devour, and the bones to crumble. matter; they will all be called for. They burnt Wickliffe's bones, and scattered the dust into the river at Lutterworth, in Leicestershire. Yet God knows where they are, and it must be gathered again. "Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; and they buried him in the city of David among the kings." "The earth is the Lord's." Was it not an honour to see such a stream of affectionate brethren following our brother to the tomb? I think you must have thought it a nice and beautiful sight; and when you followed him, you followed a fellowcitizen. I reckon that to be the honour of burial, for the godly to follow their fellow to the grave. There it awaits the great day. "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." Then the great trump of God shall sound, and raise the body into a union with the soul. So shall it be with our departed. While it was buried under the sight of a few friends, it shall be raised with the hallelujah of angels. I say he was a Jehoiada, and did good in Israel. May God bless these few remarks, and quickly send you another under shepherd, and his name shall be praised.

LETTERS TO THEOPHILUS.

The hymn mentioned by Mr. Foreman was sung at the conclusion of his sermon. We understand the part of the hymn which the departed minister most delighted in was the last four lines:

"We'll range the sweet banks

On the plains of the river,
And sing of salvation

For ever and ever."

(From a Correspondent.)

OUR aged and highly regarded Christian

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Monday next, the 12th instant, at 3 o'clock p.m. The deacons of the church request me to say, that as you knew the old building and its tenant so long, they would like you to be a witness on the occasion. Can you, and will you be there? An early answer will oblige Your's, fraternally, RICHARD WARE.

EPISTOLARY

EPISTLES TO THEOPHILUS.
LETTER II.

We have now to deal with the words, "God so loved the world." You will not forget the law of interpretation upon which we have set out-namely, that we must interpret both definite and indefinite phraseology by the subject to which it is joined, and to which it belongs. Guided by this rule, you will find

brother, Mr. James Castleden, many years In my last to you, I dwelt chiefly on the pastor of the church of Christ at Hampstead, entered into his rest early on Lord's-day words, "God so loved the world, that he gave morning, June 4th. I cannot furnish such his only begotten Son, that whosoever beparticulars, at this time, as I could wish; but lieveth in him should not perish, but have -his end was peace. A most solemn service everlasting life." John iii. 16. The subject was held at his chapel on Monday afternoon, contained in the latter part of this Scripture I 12th instant; when brother Dickerson, of will-the Lord enabling me-take up in some Alie Street, read, and engaged in prayer; one or two of my future letters to you. and the brethren Bloomfield, of Meard's Court, Soho, and Gittens, of Somers Town, each delivered addresses of great, and most weighty importance; and brother Warn, of Endon, closed in prayer. The funeral procession was then formed, and our brother's remains borne-by members of the church the pall held by his deacons, and followed by many brethren in the ministry, and a very long train of, no doubt, real mourners, slowly wended their way to the family grave in Hampstead Church Yard. In the evening service was again held in the chapel, when our brother, J. A. Jones, of Jireh, preached from John xi. 23-26: "Our brother," &c. The following most striking, Scriptural letter, was written by our brother Richard Ware, pastor of the church at Potter's Bar.

My dear Brother Jones.-Providence has laid upon me the duty to inform you of the departure of the spirit of our old friend, James Castleden. It evidently has been tired of its habitation for some considerable time. The fact is, that the old house has been out of order, and getting worse and worse for some years; until, at last, it could stand no longer. The tenant has left, and the tottering building is taken down." I believe it is the intention of the Owner to re-build it some day; indeed, the plan is already made, and the order given. The old materials are to be used; the site of the erection is to be changed; but the identity of the old building is to be strictly preserved, yet without its original defects and deformities. The understanding is, that it is to be "a glorious house, eternal in the heavens." I have learned that there is somewhere in existence an old deed-which the good old-fashioned folks used to call "an everlasting covenant" which secures possession of the new house, with all its appurtenances and conveniences, to the old tenant. What James Castleden will say, when he gets into it, I cannot tell; but I shrewdly guess it will be something like this-"Worthy is the Lamb, that was slain," &c.

As his friends are ignorant as to the time when the great Master will require the old materials for its re-erection, they propose (D.V.) removing it out of the way, to a convenient spot in Hampstead Church Yard, on

both in respect to definite and to indenite phraseology, several other co-relative helps of confirmation; for if your primary interpretation be right, all the relations which the subject bears to other things, will accord with your primary interpretation.

So you will find here in the words, "God so loved the world," for the word "world" in its meaning is in this Scripture limited; not only by the primary subject to which it belongsnamely, the love of God, but by other selfevident truths.

1st, By the history of the ancient world. Did not the Most High, in the deeps of his councils, suffer-and that for thousands of years-all nations to walk in their own way? Did he deal with all men as he did with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Did he call all others in the effectual way he did Abraham, Did he as much constitute Ishmael a child of promise as he did Isaac ? Did he love Esau as he did Jacob? Did he take even one other

nation from the midst of the nations? "Hath God assayed," saith Moses, Deut. iv. 34, "to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation ?" Hath God assayed-hath he attempted even so to do? Nor did he give the good land (see Deut. ix.) to the Israelites, because they were any better than other people; and if he drove out the heathen nations for their wickedness, he might quite as justly have kept out the Israelites for their wickedness. And does not one of that nation thus testify of the sovereignty of the mercy of the Lord unto them-" He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel: he hath not dealt so with any nation; as for his judgments, they have not known them?" Psalm .cxlvii 19-21.

One of the most awful scenes that we can contemplate, is that of the millions who-before the coming of the Saviour-passed into eternity, without mercy, having no hope, and without God in the world; and what is it but