We are not aware that we can commence our notice of this instructing volume better than by citing the words with which it concludes: "The memory of the just is blessed." But then "memory" must be enriched and refreshed by the knowledge of facts which illustrate the principles and character of "the just;" and if, with such assistance, it becomes strengthened and sanctified to enlarge and perpetuate the exercise of practical piety, it must be "blessed" indeed.
That the perusal, even of the most eminently pious biography, may have its disadvantages, we are prepared to admit; yet, judicious reflection, accompanied with progressive experience, will effect much towards preserving the considerate and devout reader from concluding that human excellence in the present state, however elevated, can be entirely detached from some qualifying alloy, or that the less distinguished may not be raised to the possession of "the best gifts," by that sovereign benevolence to which every creature, whether in earth or in heaven, is indebted, for whatever measure of natural superiority or moral greatness he may obtain.
It remains, therefore, our unshaken conviction, that, upon the whole, the amount of benefit arising from a suitable regard to such works as this now before us, vastly preponderates over the influence of certain objections which, were they allowed to operate beyond suggesting a salutary caution to the reader, might deprive us of some of the most powerful stimuli to noble enterprise, and some of the richest sources of sacred enjoyment.
Mr. Hughes was born, we learn from his own account contained in this memoir, in London, Jan. 1, 1769. His father was a native of Wales; his mother, of Lancaster. A few months after his birth, he was put, for the benefit of country air, to Mrs. Edwards, a nurse residing at Cuffley, on Enfield Chase, with whom he remained several years. Afterwards his parents placed him under the instruction of an ancient matron, of the name of Hudson. At a very early period he assumed a manner and appearance far above his years. "Joseph," one said to him, "do you love play?" to which the grotesque little urchin, as he calls himself, demurely replied, "I did, formerly!"
In his tenth year he was received as a pupil and boarder in the family of Mr. Smalley, minister of a Presbyterian congregation at Darwen, near Blackburn, in Lancashire. Here he continued for a few of the most important years of his life. From Darwen he was removed to a free school at Rivington in the same county. He was baptized by the late Dr. Stennett, and a few months afterwards was placed upon Dr. Ward's trust as a theological student in the Academy at Broadmead, Bristol. Dr. Caleb Evans was President; Mr. James Newton, A.M., Classical Tutor. Here he continued the usual term, with a view of completing his course in Scotland. Mr. Hughes thus speaks for himself:—
"Before quitting Bristol for Scotland, I enjoyed the advantage of hearing, as the assistant of Dr. Evans, Robert Hall, who also took part in the tuition of the students. The genius and attainments of the last individual would be ill pourtrayed by me. They command admiration wherever he is known; and if his pen had been as busy as his mind is capacious, ardent, and sublime, they would have commanded the admiration of distant ages. No one, before I had listened to him, had translated the classics in my hearing, with equal grace and spirit; no one had given me such an impression of intellectual nature: but he seems never to have formed the same lofty estimate of himself as he must have known that all his acquaintance held most tenaciously. The paucity of his publications must be ascribed to this. 'On what subject,' he has substantially said, 'can you recommend me to write, on which better things have not already appeared than it is in my power to produce?' Hence we may account for his diffidence, amounting to anxiety, when he has espied among his public auditors, a Parr, or a Mackintosh. Having been asked what he thought of the famed John Henderson, he said, 'I felt myself to be a mere child in his presence.'" p. 37.
In October, 1787, Mr. Hughes set out for Aberdeen, with his fellow-student, Mr. (afterwards Dr.) John Evans. Here his literary acquisitions were enriched, and his religious character much improved. Some attachments and friendships were formed, which, in following years, were ripened to maturity. Having taken his degree, he spent one session at Edinburgh, where he was most affectionately received by the venerable Dr. Erskine.
In 1791, he was solemnly called to the ministry, by the church at Wild Street, and invited to fill the situation of Classical Tutor at the Bristol Academy. Dr. Evans dying in August this year, Mr. H. continued to preach at Broadmead during the remainder of that and nearly the whole of the following year. About this time he renewed an attachment formed while a student at Bristol, between himself and Miss Esther Rolph, youngest daughter of George Rolph, Esq., a respectable solicitor at Thornbury: who afterwards became his wife, and who lives to lament her loss.
In December, 1792, Mr. Hughes accepted the office of assistant minister at Broadmead; Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Ryland, having become the Pastor and President of the Academy. In this connexion, however, after a time, Mr. H. encountered difficulties and discouragements which at length terminated in his removal to Battersea in July, 1796. In the following year, he was ordained: the service was attended to in the Independent chapel, at Clapham. Mr. Josiah Thompson, his early patron, delivered the charge, and Mr. Dore preached to the people. Other parts were taken on the interesting occasion by Mr. Liddon, of Hemel Hempstead, and Dr. Rippon, who has survived them all.
The "Religious Tract Society" was instituted in 1799, of which Mr. Hughes was appointed Secretary, and which office he retained to the period of his death. But it was as the Secretary of the "British and Foreign Bible Society" that he was universally known and admired. This noble institution, which he seems, in conversation with the Rev. T. Waters, of Worcester, to have admitted originated in a suggestion from himself, was publicly formed March 7th, 1804, at the London Tavern, Cheapside; Granville Sharp, Esq., in the chair. To the discharge of the delightful but onerous duties of this honourable office, he consecrated his distinguished talents and eminent piety, during nearly the last thirty years of his life.