The Countess meanwhile extended on all sides the circle of her utility. Her oldest chaplain, Mr. Romaine, was her adviser and assistant on all occasions, and to him the younger ministers looked up with the highest reverence and affection, and his advice was always to bear with spiritual wickedness in high places, and to keep within the pale of the Church.

His true love and respect for the Church of England was in no wise lessened, nor did ever any man take more effectual pains to serve her, whether by his preaching or his advice. Many of his vacations were employed in her service, and he constantly travelled about with her Ladyship, preaching the doctrine of the kingdom. Sussex and Hampshire enjoyed much of the fruits of these excursions.

The labours of Mr. Romaine, and of those men of God who united with him in “holding forth the word of life,” were truly astonishing. They were not suffered to labour in vain, or spend their strength for nought, when called to go forth in the name of their Divine Master. His word directs—“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that.”

The same ardent zeal animating Lady Huntingdon’s spirit, she embraced the offer of an individual at Chichester to occupy his house and try to diffuse in that city, and the region around it, the light of the Sun of Righteousness. Thither she went, with the ministers who laboured for her in the blessed work of spreading the everlasting Gospel. A chapel was soon erected, and opened by Mr. Pentycross. Mr. English, one of her Ladyship’s senior students, left it to take charge of a congregation at Gosport, of which the late Dr. Bogue was afterwards pastor. Mr. English had been labouring at Worcester, and from thence had been removed by Lady Huntingdon to Chichester. His ministry was generally acceptable, and he was favoured with encouragement and marks of usefulness. He was succeeded by Mr. Matthew Wilks, and then by the students of Trevecca in rotation. Two large chapels were soon after erected at the neighbouring village of Emsworth, and others at Petworth and Guildford. Such were the fruits of Lady Huntingdon’s labours at Chichester.

Great and illustrious, indeed, was the cause in which this venerable woman was engaged. Surveying the moral condition of mankind—the imperishable nature and unalterable destination of the human spirit—how feelingly does she lament the feebleness and insufficiency of the instrument in so divine a work, and the numberless imperfections which mingled with all her best services! Nevertheless, she cherished sensations of joy and thankfulness while she contemplated the glorious effects which, through such feeble and imperfect means, the power of the Almighty had accomplished. It was his Spirit which kindled this flame of divine charity, and, by his efficacious impulse in her heart, constrained her to unceasing exertions in scattering the precious seed of the everlasting Gospel in various parts of the kingdom, then desolate as the barren heath, but in succeeding generations producing plenteously the plants of righteousness, and the ripe fruits of grace and glory.

In 1755 a place of worship was opened by her Ladyship’s means at Basingstoke. After some years it was found too small and inconvenient for a rapidly increasing congregation, under the Rev. Thomas Thorne, one of her Ladyship’s ministers, who had settled there. About the year 1799 a new chapel was erected, capable of accommodating six hundred people, and opened for divine worship on the 11th of July, 1802. In the morning, Mr. Thorne, minister of the chapel, who was much attached to the use of the Liturgy of the Church of England, and enjoyed himself most where it was most esteemed, read the prayers of the Established Church; and the Rev. William Cooper, who was afterwards minister of her Ladyship’s chapel in Dublin, preached from Gen. xxviii. 16–17. Mr. Wilkins preached in the afternoon, and Mr. Cooper again in the evening. Mr. Thorne continued at Basingstoke about ten years.

In 1779 Mr. Wills had resigned his charge at St. Agnes, near Truro, in Cornwall, and had entered the Connexion of the Countess of Huntingdon, happy in travelling from town to town, and from city to city, to diffuse abroad the savour of that name which he loved. At the same time, Dr. Haweis, Mr. Glascott, and Mr. Taylor were frequent in their visits to Brighton and Oathall, and the other chapels of her Ladyship in the neighbourhood. In 1782 the congregation enjoyed the labours of the Rev. Edward Burn, minister of St. Mary’s, Birmingham.

In the year 1788 another alteration took place in the chapel at Brighton; a front gallery was erected by the voluntary subscriptions of several friends, chiefly for the accommodation of the Sunday-school: and in the year 1810–11 a further alteration was effected, by throwing open to the chapel a large parlour, by means of folding doors, principally for the accommodation of the visitors, building a fourth gallery for the poor and the children of the school, and erecting a minister’s vestry behind the pulpit. The chapel was now rendered a very commodious place of worship, and was capable of containing about a thousand persons. On the completion of this alteration, the Rev. Rowland Hill preached in the morning and evening, and the Rev. Mr. Whitefoot, of Enfield, delivered a discourse in the afternoon.

In the year 1822 it was deemed expedient again to enlarge the chapel, by enclosing a piece of ground at the south end, equal in size to rather more than half the ground floor in 1810; and on Sunday, the 19th April, 1822, the Rev. Rowland Hill again preached twice at the re-opening. The chapel is now considered sufficiently capacious to contain fifteen hundred persons, and is characterized by a neat and chaste simplicity throughout.

At Brighton and Oathall the Rev. Thomas Jones passed the last twenty-six years of his life, which closed September 15th, 1814. At that time he was the senior minister in Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion, having been admitted at Trevecca in 1769. How encouraging, how animating are these relations of the success attending the benevolent efforts of the noble Countess! The footsteps of Divine Providence, in the government of the world at large, are traced with devout attention by every real Christian; but those events which are visibly connected with the extension of the Saviour’s kingdom among men are observed with the most diligent and affectionate regard. To those who are the subjects of the great Redeemer the interests of pure and vital godliness are inexpressibly dear; and every advance towards the establishment of his gracious reign must be pleasing in the highest degree. The foregoing narrative hath furnished abundant evidence of the Lord’s gracious approbation of the various and zealous efforts of the ministers sent forth by her Ladyship, and, consequently, strong encouragement to those that remain to proceed with increasing diligence and vigour in this noble cause. O! how did the heart of the venerable Foundress of the Connexion glow with holy ardour for the honour of her Divine Lord, and for the salvation of lost sinners! And how was she constrained to employ all her powers, to exert all their vigour, to advance the same interests for which the Saviour’s companion prompted him to live and die! Much, very much indeed, remains to be done. The voice of the Great Leader and Commander is—Go forward! The voice of an approving Providence is—Go forward!