... the Rev. Thomas Collins was appointed [in 1845]. The arrival of that richly endowed evangelist inspired the Circuit with new hope. It was soon apparent that his ardent evangelism, an undying passion, was not inconsistent with a profound regard tor material interests, and one of his first instincts was to appoint a representative committee to liquidate the chapel debts. Having certain money due to him from the Circuit, later on, he offered to give it to the relief of distressed chapels if it could be raised, and a collection was taken up in every place for this object.

Mr. Collins, finding the Circuit house rather small, rented a house in Fishpool Street with a good garden and suitable recreation for his daughters. He said: " It will cost me considerably, but health and comfort are more than cash." It was in this house that the late Rev. S. Coley, a nephew, then a student at Richmond, experienced an awful dream, ...

Mr. Collins found the Circuit at that period un impressible. "Hard work," he said, " yields small result. Last Sunday I rose at five, prayed in my chamber until the hour of the morning prayer meeting, went there and conducted it. During the day I addressed the Sunday scholars, preached three times, held a prayer meeting in the chapel, and last of all a special one for anxious persons. Some were moved, yet the whole day did not afford a single clear case of conversion. I shall not rest until I am surrounded by penitents. Oh cry to God with me for this." A few items of expenditure in the Stewards' Book at that time may be interesting ;-Mr. Collins' board, £10 8s.; Mr. and Mrs. Collins' quarterage, £8 8s.; washing and stationery, £2 2s.; servant, £2 2s.; coals, wood, candles, etc., £3; water rate, 7s. 6d.; poor rate, 13s. 6d.; window duty, £1 8s. 6d.; highway rate, 9s.;j paving, 12s. 6d.; children, 7 17 s. 6d.; deficiency in South Mimms and Park Street bills, £1 11s. 5d.; house rent, 6.

The ministry of Mr. Collins resulted in a large increase of souls to the Kingdom of Christ. On his arrival here, the membership was 540, and it rose, during twelve months, to 687, with 60 on trial. The other churches in the city were greatly blessed. Congregationalists, Baptists, Primitives, and Wesleyans all united, and some of the ministers were so overpowered by hallowed feeling as to be scarcely able to proceed. He describes one of the services :-" The scene was solemn, earth seemed to tremble under us. he sought a 'fire baptism.' Each soul was saturated with holy feeling. I bade the workers do God's will upon the congregation. They soon returned, each man in charge of some stricken one. Mightier demonstration of the Spirit I never knew."

Mr. Collins, in some respects, was of severe and Puritanic type. This found expression, for instance, in his crusade against what he deemed worldly attire. " Here," he says, "the silly fashion of bedizzening with flowers and gaudy ribbons so prevails that members -y es, and old ones too - are carried away with it." Mrs. Walker, of St. Albans, remembers an occasion, when a gaily dressed person presented herself as an anxious enquirer. He told her that vain attire and sorrow for sin did not agree, and taking the gauds of fashion from her brow he cast them beneath the communion table. Several brought their finery, and out of it he made a missionary maypole, rather more than six feet high, tastefully wreathed, and at the base a missionary box, with a poetic inscription ;-