est Dissenting chapel in the town, is, in many respects, unsuited to our wants and feelings.

It is damp and draughty, and some of our members are, in consequence, compelled to absent themselves from public service, during a considerable portion of the year.

The expense of keeping it in repair, is felt as a drawback to other efforts: and the decaying state of the pillars that support the roof, with that of the roof itself, constructed in the heavy style of former days, will entail upon us a burden that will be borne with difficulty. Of the exterior, it is perhaps sufficient to remark, that a stranger might pass the building, ignorant of the object to which it is consecrated.

In these circumstances, it is not surprising that many of our friends have, for some time past, wished for a more suitable and commodious structure, believing that if it could be obtained, our Society would occupy a stronger position in a town of great trade, and increasing resort as a bathing-place, with a population of 25,000 inhabitants.

The wish has been strengthened by the recent erection of four new churches and chapels.

The impossibility of procuring the requisite means in our own Society, operated as an insuperable obstacle, and might have continued to do so a few years longer, but for the increase of our Sunday school, and the necessity of refusing applications for admittance, from the want of suitable accommodation. The only place in which an additional room can be provided is over the burial-yard, but a stronger objection is grounded on the impolicy of erecting a new building in connexion with a dilapidated place of worship, although the want of it has obstructed many plans of usefulness.

The cost of a new chapel, allowing for the materials of the old, will be £600; that of a school-room and vestry £150, for which there would be space upon the present site. The front of the building might also be withdrawn a little from the street, on which it now abuts, and the foundation raised, to render it warmer and drier.

Towards this sum, our number being small, and the regular demands for the support of public worship considerable, we have only raised £150. We might continue to maintain and repair the present structure, but the effect upon the finances and attendance of the chapel would probably be fatal, and we must narrow the field of usefulness opened to us by the Sunday School. We, therefore, think we are justified in appealing to the liberality of our brethren in other parts of the kingdom, to aid us in erecting a more attractive and convenient place of worship.

While few have the means of devoting large sums to such an object, the united contributions of many, however small, may be sufficient to place the cause of Unitarianism in Yarmouth on a respectable and permanent footing.

H. SQUIRE, Minister.
W. ALEXANDER,

S. COBB,

T. LETTIS,

Trustees.

GREAT YARMOUTH,
April 28 1842.

Donations will be received by Rev. R. Aspland, Hackney; Rev. J. Murch, Bath; Rev. J. Martineau, Liverpool; Rev. G. Harris, Edinburgh; and Mr T. Lettis, King Street, Great Yarmouth.

CONCESSIONS OF TRINITARIANS.-We are glad to perceive, from an advertisement on the cover of our present number, that this projected work by Mr Wilson is fast hastening towards publication. We have before recommended our readers to encourage Mr Wilson in his arduous labours, by subscribing for copies of his forthcoming work. Knowing well his diligence of research, and highly appreciating his former publication," Scriptural illustrations of Unitarianism," we had no doubt from the first that he would execute his task faithfully; and having seen a proof-sheet of the "Concessions," we gladly bear testimony to the accuracy and importance of the work, and again press our friends to aid the excellent compiler.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

M. S. London, expresses persuasion that the Editor cannot "coincide" in opinion with a "writer who can call Coleridge a dawdler in poetry," and asks whether the author of " The Apostle" in the Christian Pioneer for February "has perused the Ode on the departing Year, Religious Musings, Genevieve, or Love (surely this last may compete triumphantly with glorious Greece), Lines on Mont Blanc at Sunrise, with many others, to say nothing of his Dramas, and the powerful translation of Wallenstein, which has made Schiller an Englishman? Coleridge is, I trust, a blessed spirit in heaven, his omissions and commissions forgiven, for he loved much.' I am quite sure you cannot approve the coarse vituperation which attempts to deface his tomb. Perhaps the author of The Apostle,' in many points so good a writer, will, on reconsideration, regret, and it may be recall, his hasty malediction of the dead."

6

Britannicus; J. B.; J. A. M.; Homo Veritas Libertas; M. C. F.; T. H.; M. M.; C. L.; A. M.; R. D. (Rd.); W. S.; J. W.; F. B.; Worcestershire Chronicle; Northern Whig; Stockport Chronicle; Liverpool Times; Dublin General Advertiser; New York Tribune, -are all gratefully acknowledged.

THE

CHRISTIAN PIONEER.

No. 191.

JULY 1842.

VOL. XVI.

THE MINISTRY AT LARGE.-No. III,

CHRISTIANITY stands completely opposed to selfishness; she wages determined hostility to it; she suffers none of her disciples to live to himself, to stand aloof from his fellow-men, to manifest no desire for their welfare, to breathe no wish that they as well as he may be saved. A selfish man can be no true follower of the Lord Jesus; he can know nothing of his spirit; he has yet to learn the very rudiments of his doctrine; he is not brought to even the entrance of the outermost court of the temple. No Christian desires eternal happiness solely for himself; his heart must yearn for the salvation of others; for them he will intercede; for them he will spend his strength; for them he will watch; them he will exhort, and beseech, and warn; them he will pray to be reconciled to God; them he will labour to bring into the fold of the great Shepherd and Bishop of their souls; and them he will rejoice to meet in the realms of light and blessedness, to carry on and perfect the great work begun in this mortal state of existence. This is a returning to the rest belonging to the people of God; this is the way, the only way to make it "eternal, sacred, sure." This alone can prove that the Lord has dealt bountifully, and makes conscience sweetly whisper peace, whilst it wholly deprives her of the power of inflicting torture, by her goadings on account of systematic, deliberate opposition to the Divine will. In this sense, every man is a missionary, a preacher of righteousness, at least should consider himself as such. He is his brother's keeper, not by offensively watching his every action, and calling him to his bar for the purpose of reproving whatever he may judge to be amiss

in his conduct, but by shewing him his faith by his works, by dropping a hint, by insinuating, rather than directly offering, advice; by leading him to reform himself, more than by ostentatiously manifesting a wish to reform him; by being ever ready to succour the feeble knees, and to lift up the hands that are about to fall down from very weakness; by striving to remove difficulties from his path, and temptations from his sight; and, above all, by ever making his own life and conversation worthy of the high and holy vocation to which he is called.

now.

Yet the complaint uttered nearly three thousand years ago by the prophet of Jehovah," Who hath believed our report?" might appear to be very justly made The arm of the Lord is revealed to comparatively few; the Domestic Missionary has to encounter much in the way of opposition, and perchance to endure still more from indifference. There are some so sluggish in their natures, that nothing seems calculated to arouse them; the hopes and the fears, the promises and threatenings of the gospel, are to them as idle tales; nothing is real but what is material; they have no God save gain, or low licentious pleasure; and truly may it be said, that they are a people void of understanding, -that the workers of iniquity have no knowledge. Sad is their state, and it should call up our deepest sympathies; and yet what do many of us more than they? More highly favoured, do we take care to improve our talents? With ample means of getting and doing good, are these means successfully exerted, that those around us are benefited temporally, and likely to be so eternally? If not, we must receive more stripes than they. If we do nothing for the least of Christ's brethren, for the smallest and feeblest of his flock, we do nothing for his cause. If we neglect to utter the warning sound, and they perish, of whom will their blood be required? To see numbers around us growing up in utter ignorance of all that constitutes an honest reputable character,-to say nothing of higher considerations,-is indeed melancholy. But how can they be taught without a teacher? How hear a voice which they have never heard? How be prevented from stumbling, when they have been blind

from their birth, nay, have sought some friendly hand to lead them, but sought in vain?

But it is time to resume the narrative of my search after the wanderers and homeless. The necessity for a Home Mission became more apparent at nearly each succeeding step I made. In a populous, busy, and very large manufacturing town, there is ample scope for exertion; the labourer in such a vineyard need never stand still for want of employment. The more he does the greater is the amount of work placed before him ; it grows on his hands. A visit to one family introduces him to the knowledge of another, perhaps to several; and these, again, become centres of many new circles ;

"Another still, and still another spreads."

The missionary, as he proceeds, must see more and more that the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Persons, even the best, the most considerate, the most careful to maintain a conscience void of offence, need line upon line continually; how much more those who, shut out in a great measure by previous want of culture, from a knowledge of divine things, can form but the lowest and most inadequate ideas of their worth, and are at every moment liable to have their good impressions weakened, if not wholly destroyed, by the untoward influences around them? Yet, to the minister, if faithful to his trust, and anxious to discharge his duties effectively, the work is directly beneficial. It enlarges his knowledge of human nature, and enables him to address his people from the pulpit on topics highly conducive to their spiritual improvement, but which might be unknown to him save from these visits. I could not but notice, as I proceeded in my daily course, that my motives in making domiciliary visits appeared to become gradually better understood, my calls were looked for, and a more unreserved intercourse than at first, seemed in a fair way of being established. In many instances this expectation has been fully realized. The individuals alluded to have become more regular in their habits, more circumspect in their behaviour, and decidedly more frequent in their attendance on public worship. Devout participation in the ordinances