Lord, by this step, was preparing them for spheres of usefulness in another direction, and the great Bishop of Souls soon found employment for both of them. This friend of Mr. Raban's was Mr. Perry, who afterwards became minister at Wollaston. When Mr. Raban had accepted the invitation to Yardley, he was much devoted to the spiritual interests of his flock; but having a numerous family, he continued at Olney, following his occupation as a mechanic or builder. This enabled him to serve his flock with scarcely any reward but their affections and their prayers. In addition to his labours at Yardley, he preached lectures in different places; and it is worthy of remark, that he was the first Dissenting minister who established a lecture at Woburn, Bedfordshire, where there is now a settled congregation. Several remarkable escapes from danger and death were experienced by Mr. Raban. On one occasion, being in an unfinished building two stories high, his foot slipped and he fell to the ground and pitched upon an axe, the edge of which stood upright; it cut his hat, but missed his head, and he sustained little or no injury. At another time, a large piece of timber, on which he had set his foot, heaved up and fell with him into a saw-pit, and an anvil of a hundred pounds' weight, connected with the wood, fell upon him; but it only bruised his leg, which was soon healed. There was another still more remarkable preservation which he had to record. As he was assisting in raising a beam in a mill, the rope slipped, when the beam, under which he stood, fell with him from a height of four stories; but though much injured by the fall, his life was wonderfully preserved. At another time, he was driving a team with a load of hay down a narrow lane, when, by attempting to get on the other side of the waggon, he was thrown under the wheel; but he had the presence of mind to call to the horses to stop, which they did in a moment, and thus he was once more saved from instantaneous death. Such deliverances must have deeply affected the heart of a good man, and have led him with some deep emotion to say, with the Psalmist, "who redeemeth our life from destruction." But within the last month of his existence, the truth of Cowper's beautiful lines were exemplified-- "Safety consists not in escape From dangers of a frightful shape; An earthquake may be bid to spare The man that's strangled by a hair." On Lord's-day, May 9th, he was engaged in preaching at Woburn. After service, when leaving a friend's house, his foot slipped over a pebble--he fell, and found his right leg was broken; and that was the means of bringing him to the end of his life, on the 31st of the same month.