During the first half of the present century most of the Churches in the north of England were highly favoured with good and gifted men of truth as we gather from a collection of autograph letters and published works before us; and fifty years ago most of the London and suburban Churches were honoured with pastors whose labours God greatly owned and blest and whose names are still fragrant to many lovers of the Gospel. About the same time one of the foremost pastors in Lancashire was John Kershaw, a man greatly esteemed by all truth- loving people who knew him. He was born of humble, but very godly parents a century ago at Lower Fold, Healey, in the parish of Rochdale and county of…

My Dear Friends,—I stand here to fulfil a promise made to our departed brother, John Kershaw. At his request, I promised that if I outlived him, I would preach a funeral sermon to his memory. This request was first made on or about the 30th of Jan., 1866, and renewed the last time we met before his last affliction. To fulfil a promise made to one already in glory has in it the appearance of carrying out part of a "will," and shows something of that confiding friendship the battering and blasting storms of time cannot wither or decay. This friendship is found in all its freshness and beauty only amongst those who are united to Christ the living Vine. Brethren, may your hearts be…

Dear Friends,—I knew Mr. Kershaw for about 32 years, for about 27 intimately. Before I knew him I heard him spoken of as an Antinomian. I at that time was under deep distress of soul from law-work. When I heard him preach for the first time, I had never in my life heard a gospel sermon before. His sermon was the means of taking such a weight off my mind that I went home rejoicing in the God of my salvation. It was preached in a large club-room at Wadsworth, near Hebden Bridge, and the room was filled. Many of us went home talking of his sermon. By the Holy Spirit's power and grace of God, the sermon just fitted my case, and gave me…

Last month it was our painful duty to announce the death of Mr. Philpot; and this month our pain is renewed by our having to announce the death of Mr. Kershaw. The hope which was raised, by a little improvement in his health, that he might be spared yet a short time longer as a blessing to the churches, though only for lighter labours than formerly, has been dashed to the ground and shivered as a delicate china bowl falling from the hand. We have been favoured with the following from the pen of a once kind and faithful servant, but now a married wife (who was much with our dear departed one), aided by the bereaved and sorrowing widow: Mr. Kershaw returned home from…

John Kershaw was born in Lancashire, August 25th, 1792. His autobiography gives an interesting account of his early life, call by grace and to the ministry; also of his fifty-two years' pastorate at Hope Chapel, Rochdale, and the Jubilee meeting, 1867, when handsome presents were made to Mr. and Mrs. Kershaw, by their loving and beloved friends. After speaking of his early convictions Mr. Kershaw says:— "I was for a time shut up as in despair, wishing I had never been born,—shut up to the faith in Christ, or, as the Apostle hath it, “unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed' (Gal. 3:23). "In this perplexed state of mind I went to Bacup, and heard Mr. Hurst preach from Isaiah 45:22: 'Look unto Me,…