By the assistance rendered the building was completed, and the expense ultimately cleared.
It was in the year 1803 that Mr. Pickering, who had been a student at Rotherham College, was introduced to the notice of the congregation at Brigstock; and after ten months' probation, he was publicly ordained to the pastoral office.
Mr. Pickering was born at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in the county of Leicester, March 12th, 1777. His entrance into a state of spiritual life he dates about the spring of 1794, when he says—
It pleased God to convert me to himself under a sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Moseley, from Matt. vii. 21: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father that is in heaven." I have not much recollection of what was said, but remember that such was the impression made upon my mind that I was much affected: on reaching home, I walked about the garden in much distress. When I reflected upon that heaven of which I had been hearing, I could not help exclaiming, "I shall never reach there." Alarmed at my dreadful state as a sinner, I began to seek after God by prayer and a more constant attendance at the Chapel, and eagerly sought every opportunity of pouring out my heart before him in the closet, the shop, or the field. Nor was it long before God was pleased to break in upon my soul with light and comfort. Soon after, I found great encouragement in a discourse from John vi. 37: "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." My experience at that time was not the same as many of God's people. I had not that horror, darkness, and awful dread which some have passed through. No, blessed be Immanuel! he "drew me with the cords of a man, and with bonds of love."
Mr. Pickering became a member of the Church at Atherstone, where he then resided; and soon after this he began to engage in occasional religious services for the benefit of others; and on the 29th of August, 1798, he entered the academy at Rotherham. On the completion of his studies he laboured for a year at Driffield, in Yorkshire; but difficulties arose, which rendered it unsuitable for him to remain. He was invited on probation by the people at Brigstock. "I selected," he says, "as the ground of my first address to the congregation of Brigstock, Rom. i. 16: 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.' To the speaker it was a merciful season, and a time of saving impression to a person who afterwards joined the Church of Christ. In the afternoon I preached at Weldon, and in the evening at Corby." These places combined in promoting the temporal support of the same minister, while they mutually reaped the benefit of his pious labours. For the first twenty years of his ministry Mr. Pickering preached statedly at Brigstock and Weldon every Lord's-day, and once a month, in the evening, at Corby also.
On the 21st of June, 1804, he was ordained to the pastoral office. "The religious services of the day," he observes, "were very impressive, and highly interesting. The brethren engaged were Messrs. Toller, Whitehead, Gronow, Bullock, Wood, Spencer, and Chadwick." "The day after my ordination, a deep sense of the important work and awful responsibility of the ministry induced me to cry to God for assistance, that he would cheer me with his presence and assist me on all occasions. The care of the Church was much upon my spirit, and the eternal welfare of souls before me. How weighty the charge! how weak the instrument! and how arduous the employment! Oh, to be spiritually minded, watchful, and useful! Lord, form my mind to bear all the trials and duties of my station, and thine shall be the praise!"
Mr. Pickering's labours were continued here for thirty-three years. He was the pious, affectionate, kind, amiable, and faithful pastor of the village Church. He had, on the whole, a peaceful and useful course; always plain and serious, evangelical and devout, in his engagements as a minister, while his daily temper and conduct recommended the Gospel he preached. He died suddenly, August 27th, 1836. He was interred in the front of the Chapel where he had so long preached. Mr. Green, of Uppingham, delivered the funeral oration; Mr. Renals, of Wellingborough, who had been a fellow student with Mr. Pickering, preached the funeral sermon, from John xi. 16: "Let us also go, that we may die with him." Mr. Renals prepared and published a memoir of his friend. On his last birth-day, Mr. Pickering wrote—
March 12th, 1836.
I am this day fifty-nine years of age. I was nineteen when I began to exhort my fellow sinners residing in villages to think of God; and two years after, the Christian Church procured admission for me at Rotherham College; so that I must have been engaged, more or less, about forty years in the work of the Lord. All these years I have found him a good Master—a friend near at hand, ever ready to help, and a constant refuge to my soul; still employing me in hoary age, and rendering my services somewhat useful in his cause.
When Mr. Pickering was settled, a new gallery was erected; and in the course of his ministry, in the year 1819, a large vestry, measuring 20 feet by 17 feet, with a school-room of equal size over it, and both opening into the Meeting House, were added, to accommodate the young and the poor. The Meeting House, the vestry, and school-room together, are calculated to accommodate 450 persons.
On the death of Mr. Pickering, the destitute and afflicted people applied to Rotherham, and Mr. Isaac Vaughan came on probation, respecting whose introduction to Brigstock the following is recorded:—