THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 263
Chapel. He had not long before received the degree of Doctor of Divinity, from Brown University, in Rhode Island, America. His twofold duties at Bristol as pastor and president of the col lege he retained till his death, in 1825. And in 1815, on the death of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, he undertook the duties of secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, a position he held for two or three years. In his sixty-ninth year, Dr. Ryland s laborious course began to wear down his constitution : and each year found him weaker, till on the 25th of May, 1825, after utter ing the words "No more pain," he peacefully departed.
Dr. Rylaad s memory was honoured by a sketch from John Foster in the " Eclectic Review," and by a funeral sermon by his celebrated successor at Broadmead, Robert Hall. Both writers pass a high eulogium upon Dr. Rylaud as a pastor, preacher, tutor, and author.
Amongst Dr. Ryland s prose works were " Memoirs of the Rev. R. Hall, of Arnsby," second edition, 1852 ; and " A Candid Statement of the Reasons which induce the Baptists to differ from their Christian Brethren." He also published some sermons.
Dr. Ryland s earliest productions were poetical. We are in debted to Mr. Daniel Sedgwick for a reprint of Dr. Ryland s hymns, ninety-nine in number. Many of them are taken from the close of his " Pastoral Memorials," two vols., 1825. The dates are given, and the hymns are found to have been composed at different times, from the author s twentieth year to the year of his death. They never rise above an humble level as poetic pro ductions, but some are useful. One of his hymns, " Lord, teach a little child to pray," was composed at the request of the Rev. Andrew Fuller for his dying daughter, who died May 30th, 1786, aged six years and six months. This hymn was often repeated to her, and her father elicited from her that she was accustomed to pray over it. And one of his well-known hymns
" When Abraham s servant, to procure." was composed in 1773, during the preaching of a sermon on
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