Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

convenient building, with no other incumbrance than some few shillings a year as a ground-rent. As the result of unfortunate steps, which it is not needful here to enumerate, the place has for some time been closed; and our friends have been compelled to neglect public worship, or to meet with those who hold and preach sentiments different from their own. This has been felt to be a grievance by many. Several letters have been written respecting it to ministers in the county; some in the tone of censure, and all expressive of regret. The county ministers have sympathized in the regret, but have not had it in their power to remove the grievance.

"The Derbyshire Congregational Union" comprises twenty-seven churches. The income of the Union averages about 1807. per annum. This income is divided, in sums varying from 251. to 107., among twelve of the weakest causes in the county. But for the aid thus afforded, some of our villages must remain without the gospel, and some of our chapels must be closed. Where this would not be absolutely necessary, a subtraction would be made from the already limited salary of some worthy ministers, which would entail upon them want and suffering. The funds of the Union have improved within the last seven years, and are still gradually rising; but they are not such as would warrant the Union in placing Buxton on its list of beneficiary interests. Indeed the wish and the aim of the Union are to raise, if possible, the salary of the ministers already engaged in the county, so as to relieve them from those anxieties which are necessarily incident on their present depressed condition.

If Buxton is to be supplied by a minister adapted to the place, and worthy of the body, his support must come, for a time at least, from sources without the county. To solicit such support from the body at large, is the design of this appeal. Wealthy Christians from all parts of the kingdom visit the place: it is for their advantage that the means are needed, and it is hoped they will not object to bear their share in providing them.

Our wish is to secure the services of an educated minister, who is fitted to fill such a position, so as to promote the spiritual welfare of the visitors, and be a fair representative of the denomination. To procure such a man, we must not think of offering a salary of less than 1007. a year. If our influential friends through the country will place this annual sum at our disposal, we will do our best to place a proper minister there. As there is no Congregational church existing in Buxton, we propose to place the election of the minister in the hands of the pastors and delegates of the Union, when

they assemble at their annual meeting in April. While we ask not a positive pledge from any, we think those who become subscribers should do it on the implied understanding that, if necessary, they will continue to contribute for five years.

If the object commends itself to the judgment of our friends, we trust they will at once become contributors themselves, and use their influence to induce others to contribute also. We commend the case to the prayerful consideration of all who feel interested in the credit and success of our Congregational Christianity. What is done, should be done without delay. If, by the third week in April, this appeal shall have received such a response as will warrant the step proposed, we hope that our friends who may visit Buxton in the coming season will be able to worship there on the sabbath with pleasure and profit; and that our enemies will find there nothing to taunt us with, as a reproach to our principles, or a disgrace to the denomination.

Promises to contribute may be sent to either of us, whose names are appended. If a sufficient number of contributors be obtained, subscriptions will be considered due on the first of June. All moneys for this object to be sent to the treasurer, John Harrison, Esq., the Lawn, Belper.

JAS. GAWTHORN, Derby.
JOHN CORBIN,

THOMAS ATKIN, Glossop.

ORDINATIONS.

Rev. Henry Jones.

The ordination of the Rev. Henry Jones, (late student at the Independent College, Brecon,) to be pastor over the Congregational church meeting at Glanyrafow, Painscastle, Radnorshire, took place on Tuesday, the 2nd of March.

The Primitive Methodists at Painscastle having kindly lent their chapel for the occasion, the public services commenced on Monday evening, at seven, when Mr. T. Davies, student, Brecon, introduced, by reading and prayer; and the Rev. Messrs. Howells, of New Radnor, and Evans, of Llanbadarn, preached.

The following morning, at half-past ten, services commenced, when the Rev. Mr. Owen, Baptist minister, introduced; the Rev. R. Thomas, of Rhayader, delivered the introductory discourse; and, as the Rev. D. Jones, late of Muesyroneu, who was appointed to propose the questions, could not attend, because of ill health, the Rev. Edward Davis, M.A., Classical and Hebrew Tutor, Brecon, took his place, and the answers given by the young minister were

most appropriate, short, and very touching. After that the ordination prayer was offered up by the Rev. T. Rees, of Huntingdon ; and the charge to the church delivered by the Rev. Edward Williams, of Builtb.

In the afternoon, at two o'clock, Mr. E. T. Daviez. student, Brecon, introduced ; the Rev. Edward Davies, M.A., delivered the charge to the young minister; and the Rev. Mr. Price, of Calbach, preached, and concluded with prayer.

In the evening, also, Messrs. Jones, of the Gore; and Owen, the Baptist minister, preached.

The weather was exceedingly favourable, attendance all day great, and the services, from beginning to end, were well and ably conducted.

It is our earnest wish and prayer that the "love of God" should be abundantly shed abroad in the heart of the young minister, and of every member in the church, to cement this newly recognised union, and to make them, as a church, very useful to teach the principles of the kingdom of heaven to those that are about them, and to illumine, with the light of the word of truth, this comparatively benighted part of the Principality.

Mr. Samuel Eastman.

On Thursday, October 1st, 1846, Mr. Samuel Eastman, of Highbury College, was publicly ordained to the office of pastor, over the church of Christ assembling at the Independent chapel at Great Eversden, Cambridgeshire.

At ten o'clock a meeting was conducted by the Revds. Messrs. Hebditch, Jones, and Paul, of Highbury College, to implore the Divine blessing on the engagements of the day.

The ordination service was commenced at eleven o'clock, by the Rev. A. C. Wright, of Melbourn, in reading a portion of the Scriptures and prayer. Rev. J. H. Godwin, President of Highbury College, delivered the introductory discourse, from Rom. xiv. 16. Rev. S. S. England, of Royston, proposed the usual questions. Rev. Theophilus Eastman, A.M., (father of the young minister,) offered the dedicatory prayer, with laying on of hands. Rev. Thomas James, of London, delivered the charge to the newly-ordained minister, from 1 Tim. iv. 16. Rev. H. Trigg, of Therfield, closed the solemn and interesting service by prayer. The following ministers were present on the occasion, (most of whom took a part in the devotional services,) Revds. Messrs. Flood, of Melbourn; Gough, of Barrington; Garner, of Harston; Stockbridge, of Guilden Morden;

Peters, of Gransden; Richardson, of Ashwell.

A dinner was provided in the British school-room, of which upwards of 150 partook.

In the evening the Rev. J. Harsant, of Bassingbourn, preached to the people, from Job xxii. 22. The services throughout the day were peculiarly interesting, and will long be remembered by many. "O Lord, send now prosperity."

On the 29th instant the first anniversary of the above chapel was held, when two sermons were preached; that in the afternoon by the Rev. T. W. Jenkyn, D.D., President of Coward College, and that in the evening by the Rev. J. G. Hewlett, Ph.D., of Sion chapel, London, when 251. was collected; in addition to which many of the friends came forward, and promised a given sum each, to make it up 1007. during another year, which then leaves only a debt on the chapel of 1007.

RAINHAM CHAPEL, KENT.

The village of Rainham is situated on the high road from London to Dover, about four miles from Chatham, containing a population of about 1,000 inhabitants, with several small hamlets in the neighbourhood. This village was for a considerable period privileged with an evangelical ministry in the established church, which was attended with great acceptability and success, and the fruits of which in no small degree remain unto this present time.

About the year 1798, the Rev. Joseph Slatterie, the late beloved and laborious pastor of the Congregational church at Chatham, commenced preaching in the neighbourhood, and from that time to the present it has continued one of the most interesting preaching stations in connection with that church, now under the pastoral care of the Rev. P. Thomson.

A chapel in this populous and important village has been long required, and to obtain which considerable efforts have been made for the last thirty years; various circumstances, however, have hitherto hindered the realization of this object.

In the early part of last year a gentleman residing in the village, and impressed with the desirableness and necessity of a more suitable and inviting place for public worship, generously came forward with a liberal offer, towards the erection of a chapel ; efforts were immediately made by the friends at Chatham, and the result has been such, as to lead to the erection of a neat, commodious, and substantial edifice, to be completed for opening in the month of May.

The building is 36 by 26 feet, to scat 200 persons, and to cost 2604., exclusive of

the purchase of ground previously paid for. By the zealous exertions of the friends in the village, and at Chatham, 150. have been contributed, and as these local contributions have reached their maximum amount, an appeal is respectfully and urgently made for the generous assistance of the Christian public, hoping that by their liberal aid the sum required may be obtained, and the chapel opened, free from the encumbrance of debt.

Contributions will be received by the Rev. P. Thomson, A.M., and R. H. Shrewsbury, Esq., Gibraltar-place, New road, Chatham, and by James Watchurst, Esq., Rainham, Kent.

REMOVAL.

The Rev. J. Brown, late pastor of the Congregational church, Wimborne, Dorset, having received a unanimous and cordial invitation from the church and congregation assembling at Russell-street, Dover, entered on this pastoral charge in March last.

BERKS AND OXON ASSOCIATION.

The meeting of this Association will be held (D.v.) at Oxford, in the Rev. James

Spence's chapel, George-street, on Tuesday, the 27th April. The sermon will be preached by the Rev. J. Morison, D.D., LL.D., of London. Subject: "Nonconformity viewed in its relation to vital godliness."

SCOTLAND.

THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
THE SITE QUESTION.

We rejoice to find that a Committee of the House of Commons has been granted to inquire into the grievances of the Free Church of Scotland, arising from the conduct of those Scottish proprietors who refuse sites for the churches of this respectable and numerous body of Christians. It is high time that this contemptible form of religious persecution should be put a stop to all over the British dominions. A good deliverance from the committee appointed to investigate this matter, which we fully anticipate, will greatly subserve the interests of civil and religious liberty. We wish all success to our friends of the Free Church in their spirited determination to resist oppression and intolerance.

General Chronicle.

THOUGHTS AMID THE RUINS OF PETRA.

There is one very solemn reflection which this subject introduces to the mind. Let your thoughts run back through the long lapse of centuries to the period when the metropolis of Edom was in its glory and power. Think of the pleasure parties who strolled upon those cliffs in the evening moonlight, who trod those floors in the giddy dance, and who made those fretted arches resound with their songs and their glees. Young men were there, enterprising, full of hope, rejoicing in prospective pleasure, opulence, and fame. There was youth and beauty's unfaded cheek, glowing with the excitement of the evening song, with the heart-felt laugh, and with all those secrets of the youthful heart's affections, of love, envy, jealousy, hope, and fear. There was fashion, elate with her new attire of eastern jewels and purple dye. There was the equipage of titled nobility and hereditary wealth; young spendthrifts squandering their fathers' fortunes; and the daily collisions of aristocratic pride with prosperity and ambition emerging from obscurity. There were merchants amassing wealth, and

depositing their thousands in costly decora tions and furniture, and in ministering to the amorous desires of sons and daughters. And there were poorer merchants, pale and care-worn, helpless and appetiteless, in apprehension of the approaching pay-day, unprovided for. There were thousands exulting in the bright May-day of hope, and other thousands with aching heads and aching hearts, drooping in the sere and autumnal leaf of sorrow.

Idumea's far-famed capital contained just such hearts, each one a busy world in itself, as are now congregated on our pavements, and are throbbing in the hopes and fears, with the joys and griefs, which gather round our firesides.

But where now are Edom's youth and beauty? Where her sanguine young men, her youthful merchants, her young mechanics, her nobles, her rulers, her shouting, joking, drinking, carousing populace? All, all are gone! The last funeral procession has disappeared. The very tombs time has emptied. Not even a skull bone, with eyeless sockets, can be found to tell here was once a sparkling eye, and a smooth cheek,

and a laughing lip. Not even a handful of dust can be gathered in those dreary sepulchres, to tell that here was once a scheming, exulting, weeping man. The winds of twenty centuries have swept Petrea's deserted streets and empty sepulchres. And the countless thousands, who there once toiled and loved, and hated and died, have gone to their account, and are now reaping the eternal recompense.

But, reader! in narrating the story of Edom's departed inhabitants, what are we doing but telling your doom and ours? The lapse of a few years will consign all of us to the same eternal oblivion which has rolled over them. Young men and maidens! time is rolling its dark surges over you, and the very graves and tombs in which your bodies are to moulder will soon perish. The prosperous merchant, and the care-worn, toil-worn son of disappointment and sorrow, will soon be as far removed from all that is propitious here below as are the former tenants of the shops of Petra. The young mechanics, inspired with the ardour which seems to inspire everything in this energetic republic, will soon go to join their brethren who hewed the temples and the chambers out of the eternal rocks of Idumea. We shall all soon be gone. Every revolving year thins our numbers. Comparatively frail as are our dwellings, long before the hand of time shall tear them down, our death groan will be heard, and the children of the stranger will play at our doors. O mysterious life! O wonderful world! but a cradle and a grave! Merciful God,

Teach us to live, that we may dread
The grave as little as our bed!
Teach us to die, that so we may

Rise glorious at the awful day!

J. S. C. ABBOT.

SO MANY CALLS.

BY H. E. BEECHER STOWE.

(From the Christian Treasury.) It was a brisk, clear evening in the latter part of December, when Mr. A— returned from his counting-house to the comforts of a bright coal fire and warm arm. chair in his parlour at home. He changed his heavy boots for slippers, drew around him the folds of his evening gown, and then lounging back in the chair, looked up to the ceiling and about with an air of satisfaction. Still there was a cloud on his brow. What could be the matter with Mr. A-? To tell the truth, he had that afternoon, in his counting-room, received the agent of one of the principal religious charities of the day, and had been warmly urged to double his last year's subscription, and the urging had been pressed by statements and

arguments to which he did not know well how to reply. "People think," soliloquized he to himself, "that I am made of money, I believe. This is the fourth object this year for which I have been requested to double my subscription, and this year has been one of heavy family expenses-building and fitting up this house-carpets-curtains -no end to the new things to be bought. I do not see really how I am to give a cent more in charity. Then, there are the bills for the boys and girls-they all say they must have twice as much now as before we came to this house-wonder if I did right in building it?" And Mr. A- glanced unceasingly up and down the ceiling, and around on the costly furniture, and looked into the fire in silence. He was tired, harassed, and sleepy-his head began to swim, and his eyes closed. He was asleep. In his sleep he thought he heard a tap at the door; and there stood a plain, poorlooking man, who in a voice singularly low and sweet asked for a few moments' conversation with him. Mr. A-asked him into the parlour, and drew him a chair near the fire. The stranger looked attentively round, and then turning to Mr. A-, presented him with a paper. "It is your last year's subscription to missions," said he; "you know all the wants of that cause that can be told you; I came to see if you had anything more to add to it."

This was said in the same low and quiet voice as before; but for some reason unaccountable to himself Mr. A

was

more embarrassed by the plain, poor, unpretending man, than he had been in the presence of any one before. He was for some moments silent before he could reply at all, and then in a hurried and embarrassed manner he began the same excuses which had appeared so satisfactory to him the afternoon before-the hardness of the times, the difficulty of collecting money, family expenses, &c.

The stranger quietly surveyed the spacious apartment, with its many elegances and luxuries, and without any comment took from the merchant the paper he had given, but immediately presented him with another.

"This is your subscription to the Tract Society; have you anything to add to it? You know how much it has been doing, and how much more it now desires to do, if Christians would only furnish means. Do you not feel called upon to add something to it?"

Mr. A was very uneasy under this appeal; but there was something in the still, mild manner of the stranger that restrained him; but he answered that though he regretted it exceedingly, his circumstances were such that he could not this year conveniently add to any of his charities.

The stranger received back the paper

without any reply, but immediately presented in its place the subscription to the Bible Society, and in a few clear and forcible words reminded him of its well-known claims, and again requested him to add something to his donation. Mr. Abecame impatient.

"Have I not said," he replied, "that I can do nothing more for any charity than I did last year? There seems to be no end to the calls in these days. At first there were only three or four objects presented, and the sums required moderate-now the objects increase every day, and call upon us for money; and all, after we have given once, want us to double and treble and quadruple our subscriptions. There is no end to the thing. We may as well stop in one place as another."

The stranger took back the paper, rose, and fixing his eye on his companion, said, in a voice that thrilled to his soul,

"One year ago to-night you thought that your daughter lay dying-you could not rest for agony-upon whom did you call that night?"

The merchant started and looked upthere seemed a change to have passed over the whole form of his visitor, whose eye was fixed on him with a calm, intense, penetrating expression that subdued him he drew back, covered his face, and made no reply.

"Five years ago," said the stranger, "when you lay at the brink of the grave, and thought that if you died then you would leave a family unprovided for, do you remember how you prayed? Who saved you then?"

The stranger paused for an answer, but there was a dead silence. The merchant only bent forward as one entirely overcome, and rested his head on the seat before him.

The stranger drew yet nearer, and said, in a still lower and more impressive tone, "Do you remember fifteen years since, that time when you felt yourself so lost, so helpless, so hopeless, when you spent day and night in prayer; when you thought you would give the world for one hour's assurance that your sins were forgiven you? Who listened to you then?"

"It was my God and Saviour," said the merchant, with a sudden burst of remorseful feeling, "O yes, it was he."

"And has he ever complained of being called on too often?" inquired the stranger, in a voice of reproachful sweetness. "Say," added he, "are you willing to begin this night and ask no more of him, if he from this night will ask no more from you?"

"O never, never, never," said the merchant, throwing himself at his feet; but as he spake these words the figure seemed to vanish, and he awoke with his whole soul stirred within him.

"O God and Saviour! what have I been doing!" he exclaimed. "Take all-take everything what is all that I have to what thou hast done for me?"

MEDICAL MISSIONARIES TO CHINA.

To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine.

Welford, Northamptonshire, 1847. DEAR SIR,-My embarkation for China being fixed for the 8th of March from Portsmouth, I am desirous, with your permission, to publish in your excellent Magazine the sums of money that I have received to aid me and my coadjutor, Mr. Heischberg, in educating Chinese youth, with a view to their being imbued both with a knowledge of Christian truth and with sound principles of medical science and practice. Every attempt to raise up a native agency in the country we are seeking to evangelize is surely worthy of encouragement, for without such agency put into operation the most sanguine might despair of great and extensive results, especially among such vast communities of men as we meet with in the continents of India and China. As this is the first and may be the last time of speaking of my own labours in the Evangelical Magazine, it may not be out of place to state, for the information of those interested in missions to China, that my efforts in previous years have been principally directed to the healing of the sick, and this I have been enabled to do to a much greater extent than I could have reasonably expected. It is gratifying to state that 15,000 applied for relief during a period of five years, and that a large amount of disease has been removed, and the blessing of health restored to many who before were blind, deaf, halt, and maimed; but it affords me still greater satisfaction to record that a great proportion of these sick people have had the kingdom of God brought nigh to them, and have been instructed, by means of preaching, and by the distribution of the Sacred Scriptures and tracts, in the things that belong to righteousness, peace, and the judgment to come.

The hospital which has been put under my charge, first at Macao and afterwards at Hong Kong, has been erected and sustained by the liberality of the foreign community in China, chiefly the British.* The present institution at Hong Kong, in addition to dispensary aid, has sufficient accommodation for seventy in-patients, and it is usually filled with patients, -men, women, and

* Valuable boxes of medicines, surgical instruments, and books, have been kindly transmitted at different periods by the Chinese Association in London.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »