My dear father was born on the 7th of March, 1823, in the parish of Hackney, being the youngest son of Samuel and Sarah Tooke, who, I believe, were members of the Church at Homerton-row for forty years, the former occupying the position of deacon of that Church for a long period. In his youth he sat under the ministry of the late Daniel Curtis, but as far as I know there did not appear to be a work of grace began until he was twenty-one years of age. To use his own words: "I was kept very strictly at home, and determined that when I was of age I would have my fill of the pleasures of this life.'' Accordingly, one Lord's-day morning he…