At this time they had attained to such a degree of strength as to indulge the thought of having a stated pastor over them. In the latter part of this year, with the hearty concurrence of the ministers by whom the lecture had been preached, they invited Mr. Thomas Strange to minister amongst them, with a view to a settlement. After a suitable trial, the following invitation to the pastoral office was presented to him:—
Kilsby, June 1st, 1752.
Dear and Reverend Sir,—We, a Church of Protestant Dissenters in and near this place, have through a remarkable kind providence enjoyed the benefit of your labours for upwards of twelve months to our entire satisfaction, and we hope, through the blessing of God, to our advantage. And, sir, as your religious sentiments, piety, zeal, and ministerial ability afford an encouraging prospect of your usefulness, it appears to us very desirable that you would now, sir, enter into the relation of a pastor to us, in which request you may depend upon our unanimity, and our endeavour to make your situation comfortable and useful, by our constant prayers and all other means proper to us as private Christians, who are, sir, your cordial friends and most humble servants. (Signed by thirty-two names.)
This invitation Mr. Strange accepted; and though the numbers, the place of worship, and the accommodations he found were unusually defective, yet he went with the noble resolution of exerting all his powers for the increase and improvement of his humble charge; and his exertions were uncommonly great, prudent, and successful.
Mr. Strange was born at Evenley, in the county of Northampton. When he was about six years of age his father was removed by death; but the father had discerned in his son, at that early age, such a thoughtful spirit as led him to express a wish that he might in after life become a Christian minister. As he grew up, to obtain good books was his greatest aim; and when he had obtained a new one, he would scarcely allow himself time for his meals. He would conduct family worship at sixteen years of age, with great seriousness and propriety. On the family removing to Shelston, near Buckingham, he formed an intimate acquaintance with Mr. Boughton, afterwards a fellow student with him, and subsequently minister at Buckingham. These two friends, in the ardour of their youthful zeal, walked ten miles on the Lord's-day to hear Mr. Haywood, of Potterspury, and became members of his Church. Mr. Strange felt a great desire to be devoted to the work of the ministry, but could see no prospect of attaining that desire. But his mother mentioned the subject to Mr. Hayward; he introduced it to Dr. Doddridge, who, with his usual generosity and zeal, kindly engaged to procure for such a youth all necessary supplies during his academical course. He entered the academy at Northampton in 1745, and continued there for six years, and then entered on his ministry at Kilsby, where he pursued his labours as a Christian pastor till near the end of his days.
The following is a copy of Mr. Strange's certificate of ordination:—
Kilsby, September 11th, 1753.
These are to certify whom it may concern, that we whose names are hereunto subscribed, pastors of Churches, having received satisfaction concerning the Rev. Mr. Thomas Strange, as to the regularity of his education, the soundness of his judgment, the seriousness of his temper, and his other qualifications for public service in the ministry, have this day proceeded to set him apart to that work by prayer and imposition of hands, and cordially unite in recommending him to any Church who may need his assistance.
R. Gilbert.
James Floyd, Daventry.
John Dowley, Lutterworth.
George Hampton, Banbury.
John Heywood, Potterspury.
Samuel King, Welford.
Caleb Ashworth, Daventry.
An unhappy peculiarity in the elocution and gesture of Mr. Strange in the pulpit prevented the popularity to which his other excellencies entitled him; but these defects became so annihilated to his stated hearers by nobler impressions, that they were surprised when strangers were disgusted by them. He generally preached twice at Kilsby and once at Crick on the Lord's-day, and conducted a fourth service either at Barby or Hillmorton, having also to walk about eight miles. The congregations increased under him, so that in two years after his settlement they were obliged to erect two new galleries in the house at Kilsby. In the year 1763 they found it necessary to build a new place of worship. Towards this object they subscribed liberally, for their circumstances, raising amongst themselves £170; and by means of an appeal to other congregations, their plan of building a place at a cost of £400 was accomplished. A plain, commodious, and substantial Meeting House was erected. A few years after, finding the private room in which the meetings at Crick were held very strait and inconvenient, out of an estate settled by Mr. Henfrey on the Dissenting Society Mr. Strange erected a small but decent place of worship there, and about the same time purchased a cottage at Hillmorton, and fitted it up for the same purpose.
The people purchased the premises adjoining the Chapel for a dwelling-house for their minister, which, by Mr. Strange's skill and industry, were greatly improved. He was one of the most useful and one of the most noble-hearted of village pastors; he catechised the young people of his charge, he visited the afflicted and tried, he kept a Day-school for the benefit of the rising generation, the profits of which he devoted to pious and charitable purposes. As his own family grew up, he admitted six boarders to his house, at twelve guineas per annum and one guinea entrance. Frugality, neatness, and hospitality, were never more perfectly united than in his dwelling. A salary of £40, with the interest of £300, and some occasional benefactions, would hardly admit of a hired servant; Mrs. Strange, therefore, and her daughters, managed the whole business of the family (washing and brewing not excepted), with admirable ease and regularity. Whoever entered, or at whatever hour, no déshabillé, either in the house or inhabitants, no confusion or bustle, was perceived, nor any want of decent accommodation or cordial welcome. No time, no money was wasted; and by this means, little as they possessed of either, they always had some of each to spare at the call of indigence, friendship, or civility. No worthy supplicant or proper visitor left the house complaining; yea, the most concealed wants or distresses of their neighbours seldom escaped the kind vigilance of its inhabitants, or were suffered to remain without some endeavour to alleviate them. Yet, with all this kindness, Mr. Strange found every year a surplus to add to the little stock reserved for his family. He has often been heard to say, "that though when single he could scarcely make both ends meet, since his marriage he had been able to save a few shillings." A higher compliment to Mrs. Strange he could not easily have paid. Indeed, that management must have been truly astonishing, which out of his income, and with his liberality, could lay by, in no long course of years, several hundred pounds for his widow and his four children. The authors of the 'History of Dissenters' say, "let it not be supposed that this was the fruit of niggardly penury; the man was liberal, and had the spirit of a prince."
He took time by the forelock. On a Monday, though his Sabbath was a laborious day in travelling and preaching, it was his custom to rise an hour or two before the family, to draw out the schemes of his intended discourses on the ensuing Sabbath, as a directory to his thoughts, reading, and conversation through the week.
When he was getting near to his sixtieth year, his strength greatly declined, and he felt that his end was drawing nigh. In his last affliction he said to some of his brethren who accidentally met at his house, "I have always valued and preached the doctrine of grace, but nothing gives me so much concern, on a review of my ministry, as that I have no more insisted upon and pressed the fruits of grace." When all united in their testimony to the practical strain of his preaching, he added, "as death and eternity draw nigh, I see more than ever I did before the infinite importance of these fruits, and the comparative insignificance of all opinions without them." As to the person of Christ, he desired his flock might be assured that "he died in a firm belief that Jesus Christ was the true and proper Son of God, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; a doctrine," he added, "which I firmly believe, but do not attempt to explain." "I wish to die," he said on another occasion, "a broken-hearted sinner, renouncing everything of my own, and depending entirely for future happiness on the free grace of God, through the atonement and righteousness of Christ." His last words to his surrounding friends were, "Farewell, till the day of the Lord Jesus. The Lord have mercy, spiritual and eternal mercy, on every one of you, upon this congregation, and upon the whole Israel of God. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath a right to take away; blessed be the name of the Lord!" He died September 1st, 1784, aged sixty years.