SECESSIONS FROM CHURCHES.On were advised to shut up the place, as this subject the leading article of the it could never be anything but a failure, Freeman, July 13, says :-" The New and since that time many of the memConnexion of General Baptists, at their bers feared the responsibility of invitrecent meetings in Loughborough, seems to us to have struck the right key-note. A resolution was passed, the effect of which will be the reference of every church dispute, likely to lead to division, to an arbitration committee, whose business will be to inquire into the points at issue with a view to reconcile the disputants and to prevent secession. On such a committee only good men and true, and men as wise as they are good, can serve efficiently; but men of this character ever command the confidence of their brethren, and in a few years would make their influence felt to the advantage of the churches and the glory of the Saviour." ing our present pastor to settle here, as it was to them doubtful whether so large a sum as £300 could be raised in a single year. The minister's income has since been increased, and for two years we have had the advantage of school-rooms, which have been built at a cost of £1,378, and were opened free of any debt whatever. The weekly offerings, I believe, have contributed very largely to the success of the place, by showing the people what can be done by systematic effort, and, perhaps more than all, by relieving the church of every difficulty connected with its ordinary expenditure, thereby leaving the people free to throw their energies into other matters. We have not to speak of financial success only. The labours of our friend and pastor, Mr. Johnson, have been blessed to many, and the numbers of our church members have steadily increased." THE WEEKLY OFFERING.-A minister at Sydney writes :-"You will be glad to hear that the weekly offering system is a great success in our church. Previous to its introduction there was considerable financial difficulty, and DECLINE OF METHODISM.-The New our old deacons shrugged their shoul- York Methodist in its last issue thus ders and shook their heads gravely closes an article on the decline of Methowhen it was decided at a church meet- dism in England, based on official ing to have no more pew rents and papers:-"A change is going on in adopt the new plan. We have not a the spirit of the Methodists of England. single wealthy person in our congre- An American Methodist going to Enggation, but the united efforts of the land is struck by the fact that Wesleypeople, regularly sustained, have en- anism is rigidly official. All that is abled them to do that which has as- done must be done in a certain prestonished themselves as well as others. scribed way, and in no other. SponWhen the weekly offerings were intro-taneous efforts to do good are apt to duced, it was determined that present be checked as irregularities. Revivalseat-holders who were unwilling to take the envelopes should be permitted to pay their seat-rents as before, but all new applications should come under the new plan. The number of weekly donors has gradually increased, and there are now about one hundred and twenty whose offerings average £7 per week. This just pays our minister's salary, which is £350 per annum, and the collections made at our anniversary services cover the incidental expenses of the church. Of course our people contribute specially for home and foreign missions and various Christian and philanthropic agencies. The total contributions last year of the church and school were close upon £800. Less than six years ago the church officers W ists, such as the American Caughey, or travelling evangelists, such as Dr. and Mrs. Palmer, are admitted as COlabourers doubtfully, and after much hesitation. The hortatory appeals with which every American Methodist is familiar, fall upon the ears of Wesleyan audiences as novelties. A camp-meeting is held in Ireland as a strange experiment, and people wonder that it passes off quietly. All these and many like facts show that American and British Methodists are, in many important respects, unlike, and that the Wesleyans have lost very much of the original spirit of Methodism. The solution of the decline of Wesleyan Methodism, as offered by the Watchman, seems to us to be the merest trifling. The causes of decay lie deeper, and we late Rev. H. Bourne, and edited by the suspect that there is in the picture Rev. W. Antliff, has been published drawn by a layman of the Wesleyan during the year, and is selling well. ministers more truth than the official The new edition of the "Connexional representatives of the Church would be History," by the Rev. John Petty, is willing to admit. Compressed tightly selling satisfactorily. Total amount in the bonds of officialism, tenacious of business, £21,022 78. 4d. even to nicety of its formula, Wesleyanism has become purely mechanical. All the recent signs show that life and energy are leaving it. If, in addition to all this, it is, as charged, so ambitious of respectability as to disclaim its proper mission, its end must be inevitable-it will sink into a slow decay." CHURCH WORK.-The Boston Watchman complains of the tendency which exists at the present day to lessen the claims of the churches on the time and labour of their members. It says that "in many churches only a single prayer-meeting is held during the six days of the week, and the weekly lecture, once so highly prized, has been generally abandoned. A conviction is gaining ground that one of the Sabbath services may be dispensed with, and the day be publicly occupied by a sermon in the morning, and the Sabbath school in the afternoon, and a conference meeting in the evening. The feeling which prompts these changes is a desire to have less work and more leisure; to lighten the burdens imposed by church membership, and devote more time to individual or social culture. Many intelligent members, pastors, and laymen, are sincere in thinking that the higher and permanent interests of the churches will be promoted by such a policy. In English churches, on the other hand, the tendency is to multiply the engagements of the members, and to bring them together as frequently as possible." CHRISTIAN LITERATURE AMONG THE PRIMITIVE METHODISTS.-[Let those who are accustomed to think that the Primitives "have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge," read and ponder the following report.-Ed.] A summary of the reports read in the Music-hall, on the previous day, will no doubt prove interesting. The committee on book-room affairs advise the Conference to publish a life of Hugh Bourne, to be prepared by the Rev. William Antliff; and a life of William Clowes, by the Rev. William Garner; each book to sell for 3s. 6d. or 4s. The book-room business for last year exceeded that of any year preceding. The net proceeds were £3,470 11s. 9d. Of this amount the auxiliary fund will receive £200; the general chapel fund, £200; the general missionary fund, £200; the Canadian missions, £400; the superannuation fund, £1,600; and SUPPLY OF MINISTERS.-The National the rest will be reserved for the pur- Baptist says:-"The mortality of our chase of property and the enlargement ministers has been of late very marked. of the book-room premises. "The The number of young men who are Child's Friend" is to be improved next avowedly preparing in our schools for year, especially in its illustrations. Its the ministry is very small in contrast present sale is about 22,000 copies with the rapidly increasing calls for monthly. The Christian Messenger," ministers among the churches. The in its second year of issue, has a circulation of about 34,000. "The Juvenile Magazine," 34,000 copies monthly circulation; and the "Sixpenny Magazine," 12,000. "The Congregational Hymn Book" had a sale of 32,670 last year; the school hymn books, 33,552; the "Revival Hymn Book," 2,145. Total of hymn books sold, 68,367. The sale of the "Connexional Catechism" was 6,537; of the "Spelling Book," 12,788; "Consolidated Minutes," 600; Class-leaders' Manual," 250. The "Ecclesiastical History," compiled by the number who avow their call to the ministry is very small. No question among us is just now of more serious practical importance than the question, How is the number of our ministers to be increased? The destitution of the churches at the present rate of decrease of ministers will soon become very distressing and alarming. The fact that other denominations are in like condition is no relief to us." PROFESSORSHIP OF EVANGELISTIC THEOLOGY.-The Free Church of Scotland propose to establish a professor ship of evangelistic theology. The recognised as a great advance towards professor is to be chosen by the Assem- the truth. Nay more, we are inclined bly of 1867, is to be a member of the to believe that it is in advance of the Senatus of the New College, and is to Essayists and Reviewers, of Kingsley, lecture from time to time on the duty Jowett, and Stanley. For these writers and privilege of preaching the Gospel leave little room for Christ; they go to the heathen, in the other Colleges back to the monotheism of the Patriof the Church. His salary is to be paid archs rather than to the faith of the from the interest of £10,000 subscribed Apostles; they revert to heathenism by the friends of missions. rather than Christianity. The writer THE MARRIAGE SERVICE. "A of Ecce Homo,' on the other hand, Hampshire Incumbent" writes to the does find a definite place and a definite Pall Mall Gazette-"If you had mar- work for our Master, and, successfully ried as many couples as I have, you defending his views against this yet would be aware that it is not only looser school as he does in this preface, when German princes appear at the assigns to our Lord a commanding hymeneal altar in England that novel- position above all the other moralists ties in pronunciation occur and foreign of the world, and presents Him to admatter is introduced in the marriage iniration as thus invested with 'inex.service. The theme admits of more pressible personal rank and dignity.' variations than you might suppose. In We can also quite understand that my parish it is quite the fashion for the man in giving the ring to say to the woman,With my body I thee wash up, and with all my hurdle goods I thee, and thou;' to which strange trio he pertinaciously adheres in spite of all my endeavours to correct the text. One man who could not read, but had taken praiseworthy pains to learn his part beforehand, had perfectly mastered what he was taught, only unluckily his coach' had blundered upon the baptismal instead of the matrimonial service, so when interrogated as to taking the woman to be his wedded wife and so forth,' as the Standard has it, the bridegroom stoutly affirmed, All this I steadfastly believe.' The women are usually better up in this part of the Prayer Book than the men, but one day a bride (not of my parish, I am happy to say, but taught in a Government school) startled me by making the extraordinary vow to take her husband 'too ave and too old from this day fortni't for betterer horse for richerer power in siggerness else to love cherries and to bay.' เ minds so poisoned with sceptical thought as to regard Jesus of Nazareth with contempt might be fascinated by such a book as this, and emerging out of their world of barren negations may rejoice to find some positive ground to rest upon, not palpably at variance with all the historical facts of Christianity. And yet it would not follow that the book is a good book, or a safe bok, or a true book because it does this, so long as it stops short of the Scriptural portraiture of Christ, and does not accept the distinctive doctrines which enter into the very heart and life of Christianity. God's work can only be done by God's truth, and by no faint reflection of it; still less by a distorted counterfeit of it." A PREACHER ON FIRE.-The New York correspondent of the Boston Journal relates the following:-"In one of the Presbyterian churches, the other Sunday morning, a minister was officiating with all due decorum and solemnity. All at once he began to cut up queer antics, and shortly disappeared from public view, to the no "ECCE HOMO."- The Record, in a small astonishment of his auditors. review of "Ecce Homo," says:- The pulpit being a close one, boxed up "Compared with the profanity of on all sides, and the door shut, the Strauss and the sceptical romances of people could not tell what was going Michelet and Rénan, far more com- on; but smoke rising from the pulpit pared with the coarse and insolent gave assurance that there was fire blasphemy characteristic of some por- somewhere, and the excited congregation at least of the seventeenth century tion learnt, after a while, that the Deism, the portraiture of our Lord minister was on fire. It seems that he suggested in Ecce Homo' must be carried in his pocket a lot of loose lucifer matches, and they ignited and prepare the way for it in the future. set him on fire. Assistance caine, and There is little bitterness at the North, the minister (fire) was put out. The but a willingness in general to bury service was continued, but the solem- the past, if Southern Christians will be nity of the audience was not so marked truly loyal to the government, and as on some other occasions." sincere in their efforts to elevate the freedmen." MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS HELENA.-Princess Helena Augusta Victoria, the Queen's third daughter, was married on Thursday afternoon to his Royal Highness Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein - Sonderbourg-Augustenburg. The wedding was celebrated at Windsor Castle, in the private chapel of that ancient Royal residence, and was attended by a brilliant concourse of invited guests. DRINKING FOUNTAINS.-There are 140 drinking fountains in London; and it is estimated that about 8,000 people drink at a single fountain in one day. The Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountains Association requires £1,000 a-year to keep its present number of fountains in repair. A Chicago correspondent of the National Baptist reports the following noteworthy undertaking:-"We have been thinking that Chicago, with its three Baptist houses erected and paid for during the last two years, stood in the foreground of Baptist enterprise. But for undertaking great things and success in the undertaking, commend us to the little church at Kankakee. Last year they reported a membership of about fifty. This year we met in a noble stone structure belonging to them, which has cost 24,000 dollars, and is paid for. They dedicated it on the Sabbath before the association convered, and raised 15,600 dollars to clear off the indebtedness, and presented the house to the Lord, without blemish or incumbrance. It has been a struggle to build, but God has greatly blessed them in it, and added to them by conversions and immigration, so that now they number 145 souls. Yet none of the members are wealthy. None, we believe, are worth more than 6,000 dollars. Some of them have given oneA New York paper says:-"No im- half of all they had, and have done it mediate union between Northern and with great joy. Young men have conSouthern Baptists is possible; but a tributed their hundreds, and new concharitable spirit on both sides, recog-verts have had an excellent opportunising what is good and hopeful, may 'nity to grow in the grace of giving." AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS. THE Western Baptist churches are rapidly increasing in numbers. A new Baptist Quarterly is about to be published by the American Baptist Publication Society. General Correspondence. DENOMINATIONAL STATISTICS. | of 221 members. It is to be regretted TO THE EDITORS Dear Sirs,-Although the Statistical Returns, as recorded in the Minutes, report a clear increase of four persons in our denominational membership for the past year, a comparison of the entire number of members reported with the number given in the preceding year, will shew that there is a decrease that some of the churches do not exercise more care so as to ensure accuracy in their returns; but it is a matter for far deeper sorrow and shame that notwithstanding all the teaching, preaching, and praying, in abont 150 churches, there is so serious a decline in numbers. It is sometimes said that numerical additions are not an index to the prosperity of churches; to this we may General Correspondence. your readers. 301 The Conference is reported to have deemed it a good one. Might not its publication, therefore, be of good service to the churches. I am, Sirs, yours truly, J. R. reply, that if there be no additions the | Association, to lay the same before churches must soon become extinct. Let those of us who are ministers press upon our hearts very solemnly the inquiry, Why is there so little visible success? and let us ask whether there is anything in the matter or manner of our preaching, or in our conduct, that prevents the more manifest and mighty working of the word and Spirit of God among us? Should there not also be searching of heart among the officers and members of our churches, so that the hindrances to our prosperity may be discovered and removed, for it is certain that we are not straitened in God, but in ourselves. THOMAS BARRASS. Peterborough, July 14th, 1866. ***We shall be glad if this short note from the Association Secretary lead to other communications on a sub- quired an independency, or who have LAY PREACHERS. TO THE EDITORS Dear Sirs, Will you allow me to request the brethren who presented to the last North Derbyshire Conference a plan relative to a Local Preacher's THE ASSOCIATION SERMON. To THE EDITORS Dear Sirs,-We regret to find the Rev. J. Salisbury feels considerable hesitation in publishing the Association Sermon as announced, in consequence of the number at present ordered falling so far short of the quantity necessary to guarantee him from positive loss. As he was urgently desired by many ministers and friends at the Associa tion to issue it, we cannot but think WINKS & SON. THE PUBLICATION SCHEME. WE request the renewed attention of our readers to the proposal to publish Memorials of our Deceased Ministers. The volume to be first issued will contain the lives of men who, if not the fathers and founders of the Connexion, were eminently useful in extending its borders and promoting its prosperity. The number of subscribers to this Volume already obtained is not more than two hundred. Probably some churches may have overlooked the prospectuses recently sent to them. It is hoped they will take an early opportunity of ascertaining what number of copies are likely to be required, as it will be folly to proceed with the preparation of the volume unless there is the prospect of a demand which will cover the cost of its publication. |