We now have stated supplies, in hopes that the great Head of the Church will send us a pastor that will go in and out before us, and feed our souls with spiritual food. Our numbers being increased to about two hundred, the place which has been rented about fifty years being very small, and we being only tenants at will and under a discharge to quit at Lady-day next, we have been under the necessity of purchasing a house, with ground to it sufficient for the purpose of erecting a new place for public worship, on which we have built a shell, the walls of stone, and covered with slate, to finish which in a plain comfortable manner will cost in the whole expense about L300. We are not able to raise more than L100 amongst ourselves, there being no individual belonging to the congregation of independent fortune; therefore we are obliged to make our case known, and to request the assistance of our friends of other congregations. By the assistance rendered the building was completed, and the expense ultimately cleared. It was in the year 1803 that Mr. Pickering, who had been a student at Rotherham College, was introduced to the notice of the congregation at Brigstock; and after ten months' probation, he was publicly ordained to the pastoral office. Mr. Pickering was born at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in the county of Leicester, March 12th, 1777. His entrance into a state of spiritual life he dates about the spring of 1794, when he says-- It pleased God to convert me to himself under a sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Moseley, from Matt. vii. 21: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father that is in heaven." I have not much recollection of what was said, but remember that such was the impression made upon my mind that I was much affected: on reaching home, I walked about the garden in much distress. When I reflected upon that heaven of which I had been hearing, I could not help exclaiming, "I shall never reach there." Alarmed at my dreadful state as a sinner, I began to seek after God by prayer and a more constant attendance at the Chapel, and eagerly sought every opportunity of pouring out my heart before him in the closet, the shop, or the field. Nor was it long before God was pleased to break in upon my soul with light and comfort. Soon after, I found great encouragement in a discourse from John vi. 37: "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." My experience at that time was not the same as many of God's people. I had not that horror, darkness, and awful dread which some have passed through. No, blessed be Immanuel! he "drew me with the cords of a man, and with bonds of love."