As might have been expected, when Mr. Heywood's village labours decreased, the Church and congregation became much reduced, and it required the services of a young and devoted man to revive the declining interest. Mr. John Goode, a student at Newport Academy, had assisted Mr. Heywood before his death, and he was invited to become the pastor, and was ordained October 24th, 1782, when his tutor, Mr. Bull, gave him the charge, from 1st Kings xx. 11: "Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast as he that putteth it off." The declining congregation was greatly revived; for though Mr. Goode did not attempt to fill the whole sphere of labour which his predecessor occupied, yet he preached in all the principal places. A decisive proof of his success remains in the present Meeting, and the pastoral house adjoining. The old Meeting House, which had originally been a barn or out-building belonging to what was called "Padder's Farm," and in which the congregation had assembled from its first establishment, was now pulled down with the old house adjoining, in which Mr. Harrison and his successors had resided. The present Meeting House and Parsonage were erected on the site, and the former was opened for public worship by Mr. Bull on the 9th of August, 1780. Mr. Goode was born at Buckingham, March 26th, 1754. He served a regular apprenticeship to an apothecary there. During his early days, Buckingham Church was favoured with the ministry of the excellent Rev. David Simpson, afterwards of Macclesfield, well known as the author of the 'Plea for Religion and the Holy Scriptures.' Mr. Goode and his brother, afterwards the Rev. William Goode, the successor of the celebrated Romaine, at Blackfriars, were brought to the knowledge of the truth under the ministry of Mr. Simpson. When brought earnestly to attend to his own salvation, he had a lively and anxious solicitude after the salvation of others. He was in the habit of rising early, and, accompanied by a few young friends, going to preach in some of the neighbouring cottages, and then returning to his daily duties at the time of commencing business. He also frequently met a few friends in the evening at a private house for prayer, and the exhortations he then delivered appear to have been made useful to many, who lived to exemplify the power of religion. It is a pleasing fact, which deserves to be recorded in connexion with this little social meeting, that the great Head of the Church was at this time training up three of its members to occupy important stations of usefulness in distinct portions of his vineyard--the subject of this account, his brother (afterwards the clergyman of Blackfriars), and the Rev. James Hinton, for many years the highly-esteemed and useful pastor of the Baptist Church in the city of Oxford.