upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings," &c. The number in the church is about as many again as when Mr. Wilkins came. However, a change has been permitted to take place. Some of the members of the late Mr. Sedgwick's church, Brighton, were very anxious to have Mr. Wilkins to Brighton, to commence a new cause; but his removal was strongly opposed by the church and congregation, and they did everything they could to retain his services, and told him they believed the hand of God was not in his removal. The people at Brighton were still with him, as the widow with the unjust judge," until they obtained a promise from him that he would go there. On Lord's-day, the 6th instant, he said, "Finally, brethren, farewell." On the Monday following a few friends met in the chapel for tea; after which, they presented a small testimo. nial, as a token of their affection for him. Peace and love reigned until the close. "We part in body, not in mind." Our minds continue knit together by the principle of heavenly love. If the removal be of God, it will prosper. We are looking to the hand of the God of Bethel. We hope for the best; and that a gracious effusion of the Holy Spirit may be vouchsafed to brother W., and that he may be very successful in gathering in God's elect, redeemed, and quickened people. We know it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." The Saviour, who has given his Holy Spirit to his church, alone can give the man. "I will give you pastors after mine own heart."

May we, dear brother, in preaching a Saviour crucified, feel much of the Master's presence, and while we are feeding the flock of God, feed on the true manna; so prays, yours in Christ Jesus,

WM. WOODSTOCK. Leighton Buzzard, April 15.

ZION CHAPEL, SOMERS TOWN.

say,

THE annual tea meeting of Zion Chapel, Goldington Crescent, Somers Town, was held as usual on Good Friday. By 5 o'clock, there was a good company. Shortly after 5, Mr. James Nunn took the chair; and I must there was something very pleasing, to see between 300 and 400 persons with smiling countenances, as they were talking together during tea time. There appeared, indeed, kindness of disposition, union of feeling, and association of interest in the one object for which they were met- the happiness and union of God's people. There is a feeling pleasure in seeing the Lord's people happy; and, as far as external appearances speak, (both at the tea meeting and the public meeting, when the chapel was literally full), we never saw a company with more peaceful pleasure on their countenances; speakers, hearers, and singers, all appeared to be happy, and it is acknowledged to be one of the best meetings held at Zion. Messrs. Jenkin, Firman, Attwood, Brake, Sack, and Searle, were engaged in the service of the evening. There appeared to be life, love and liberty in their speeches. The singers, who had practised a

few pieces, interspersed them between the speeches, which made it very cheerful and pleasing.

Mr. George Firman, at the closing of his speech, stated that as he was walking the day before, and thinking of the meeting, he remembered hearing a child once sing a song, entitled, "I won't be a Nun!" from which circumstance he was led to write a few verses; and by the permission of the friends he would read the following lines:

In Rome there are orders and forms not a few;
Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, and Priest-
Some high and some low, as their orders may
esses too;
[run;
Abbots, Vicars and Abbesses, down to a Nun.
In Protestant England, I'm sorry to name,
The High Church, in spirit, is nearly the

same;

But free-grace alone, as proclaimed by a Nunn. May you as a church have that best of all [increase, In Spirit, in love, wealth and numbers, With your belov'd pastor, and when his work's done,

peace;

one,

Provide you a Joshua, the son of a Nunn. May you, my dear brother, be by heaven upheld, [shield To spread wide the banner of grace as the Of that church, you its pastor, in covenant To shout Jesus' praises, a much-honored Nunn. The reading of which produced a good deal of cheerful feeling. At the close of the speeches Mr. Nunn, as Chairman, summed up the whole by a few, yet very appropriate, ideas. The meeting then closed, the amount from the tea (being voluntary) and collections, being £22 168.

SALEM CHAPEL, COGGESHALL.

DEAR BROTHER BANKS.-Knowing you are glad to see the grace of God manifest in the hearts of poor sinners, I drop you a line for the VESSEL. I do love to "rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." You know something of our weepings, and I desire you should know something of our rejoicings. The dear Lord is blessing his little flock at our Salem, Coggeshall.

On

EARL STREET, LONDON ROAD.

MANCHESTER,

[WE give the following for two reasons-first -in hope it may lead to the finding out of some little Bethel where God's truth is proclaimed in the midst of Manchester's many thousands, and hundreds of thousands-and secondly, if no such place be there, we should be pleased to know this note is instrumental in stirring up some of the Lord's anointed ones, again to unite together for the proclamation of the Gospel in these parts. While we thus write, we have a conviction that to find a faithful, powerful, efficient, and devoted minister of Christ, adapted for Manchester, is indeed, a most difficult task. The fact is, the great bulk of our ministers are far behind the age in which they live; while the Manchester folk, are onward a-head. There is another point. It is hardly a question with us, if some who profess the gospel in that large city, have not fearfully wounded the Redeemer in the house of his friends; and he has left them to reap that which they have sown; but, we add no more now. Our thoughts of Manchester are many and deep -our desires for the prosperity of Zion there, none can fully describe. To know that the Lord had set a Watchman on the walls there, would be joyful news indeed; and we do not despair, although our faith has long been tried.-ED]

(To the Editor of the Earthen Vessel.) DEAR SIR,-Having been a constant reader of your valuable and well-conducted miscellary for some time past, and having gained much pleasing information therefrom, I cannot help contrasting the writings and preachings of the present day therewith; and am ready to cry out with astonishment, that it is high time the ambassadors of Christ should awake from their slumbers, and buckle on the whole armour of God, to plough up the Arminianism of the present day. Really it is fearful to think to what an extent the unerring word of truth is mangled and trampled upon in this great city (Manchester). We formerly had one in Oldham Street who sounded the gospel trumpet, but through some mismanagement, not his, I believe, he has removed to some distant part, where it has pleased our blessed Lord to place him. Now, Mr. Editor, with great respect for our British Baptist Churches, I am not aware of any other church upon earth who contends so earnestly for that blessed but much despised ordinance, believer's baptism, which will still continue to proclaim to the world the glorious gospel of our blessed Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, which with many other divine things, might be mentioned as belonging to our Particular Baptist Churches; and when I join the term Particular, I say the church of Christ cannot be too particular, in ascertaining previous to joining the church the nature and qualification of the members they are to receive. FRANCIS WALLACE. Greenkeys, Manchester, April 21st, 1856.

(To the Editor of Earthen Vessel) DEAR SIR,-I have this day attended at Earl St. London Road, a very neat place of worship, opened by Mr. Cornford, in the Baptist connextion; a clever young man, who has been a missionary. But I find there is a difference in his Bible and mine, and I write you upon the question in dispute. The minister expressly said in his sermon about election, that we are elected when we are converted." I find by my Bible, we were elected long before we were born. What a pity that a man, with so many abilities, should be allowed to get up to mislead the people

I

I believe this half and half preaching the Word the greatest curse that possibly can come upon a city; calling upon the dead to come to life as if they had power without the Spirit of God. I very much question whether, in all the Word of God, we are justified in calling upon dead sinners to come to life. look upon the minister of the word's duty solely to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, and to lay the sinner low in the dust, we have nothing to do with the conversion of sinners, that is God's work. Only let us aim to exalt the Redeemer; to preach him as having finished the work of salvation; as having paid the debt, and made an end of sin; and brought in an everlasting righteousness, and I am quite sure the Lord will not lose his own sheep. He will not let one perish for want of means.

It

Oh, for more faith, to see that salvation, from first to last, is all of sovereign grace. was only the other day that I heard one of these free-will men making a mock of one of Toplady's hymns, and if all the hymns of the free-will writers were put together they would prove a cypher compared to that precious verse

"I to the end shall endure,

As sure as the earnest is given :
More happy, but not more secure

The glorified spirits in heaven." Oh, that we had more such men as Toplady, Owen, Romain, and others, to exalt the Lord, but they are nearly all gone out of the way. We have, now-a-days, a different kind of preaching, nothing but do, do, do,-instead of all done, done, done. I firmly believe when we come to die, nothing then will avail but the dying work of Christ, our Saviour.

Your constant reader,

HONESTY.

[Our friend "Honesty" has been rambling. The hings he speaks of are verily so, the vital savour, and the sterling truths of the gospel, are rarely to be found; and where they are, satan stirs up strife and division; and we cannot but sometimes tremble for the ark, as Eli did. We advise "Honesty," in future, to keep fast by the fields of Boaz. -ED.

"QUITE SPRING TIME AT CLARE."

WE are favoured to receive pleasant tidings from this part of Suffolk. A correspondent says, of our brother Pells, "I hear him to

MOUNT ZION CHAPEL,

CHADWELL STREET, CLERKENWELL. ON Thursday evening, February 28th, our pastor, Mr Hazelton baptised four males, and five females in the name of the Holy Trinity. Our brother Mote of Horsham, preached a good sermon on the occasion upon the spiritual signification of believer's baptism, from Romans vi. 4. "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Here Jesus still maintains his throne,
And as his kingdom grows,

Fresh honours shall adorn his crown
And shame confound his foes.

A VOICE OUT OF SUFFOLK.

DEAR MR. EDITOR,-As a constant reader of your valuable periodical, I beg leave to write a few words to you by way of encouragement, begging the great Head of the church to command his blessing to rest upon your labours of love. I can assure you, dear Sir, that I hail your VESSEL with great delight for its rich cargo that it brings from a far country, the sweet spices of mercy for the wretched, freegrace for the miserable, balmy blood for the guilty, salvation for the lost, bread for the hungry, clothing for the naked, everlasting love for those that were at enmity, unchangeable love for those that are full of changeswith such rich stores as these who can perish? and, what endears it to my poor starving soul, its all free, "without money and without price;" it is suited to those that are so poor that there is not anything left, that have experienced the holiness of God's righteous law, the fierceness of his wrath, the majesty of his justice, saying "Pay me what thou owest," and then the poor sinner goes in search for payment; but, alas! instead of finding a sufficiency, he finds, to his great surprise, he has nothing; and where there is nothing it supposes a famine: "And there arose a mighty famine in the land." Well now, in this state he begins to be in want; but still there are a few husks which the swine feed upon. He will try and satisfy his hunger with a little more creature doings, but he cannot live here any longer. Well now, what is the result? The scene is changed, his appetite is changed, his thoughts are changed, his enmity is turned into love-his eyes are opened. His ear unstopped, his mouth speaks plainly, his heart breaks, his eyes

overflow, his memory is renewed-in fact, he has become another man-"Old things are passed away, and all things are become new,' and in this renewed life he cannot live any longer with the swine of the world. By this operation of the Divine Spirit he is brought to himself, and now the language forced from heart, is, "I will, I will arise! this won't do his mouth, by reason of the cogitation of his any longer; this land is loathsome-it stincketh; here is famine and death. I will arise and go to Mount Zion, the place of my Father's abode, for there is plenty there!" So we see the poor man would not go until he was made willing. Our great commanding Jehovah says, "They shall be made willing in the day of my power;" and I maintain that nothing short of the almighty power of God, who said, "Let there be light, and there was light," can bring the dead sinner into life, the dark sinner into light-the carnal sinner into spirituality, for we discover in the conversion of the above named, that though God the Spirit took him in hand, he would not resign until necessity compelled him to return. Human nature is so spoiled that it will not submit to the righteousness of Christ as long as it can rest in any part of the righteousness of the creature; they all must become as filthy rags before the sinner will give them up. In this state of feelings we are made glad of a free-grace gospel-not till then will any sinner love "the truth as it is in Jesus;" and I am happy to say such rich provision of freegrace your little VESSEL is laden with from time to time, and I hope I may say more so of late, since you have taken "A Little One" on board, for it is so full of discrimination, that it really separates the precious from the vile, debases human nature, and exalts our great Emanuel. But I find in the April VESSEL that a terrible blast is likely to come upon him. I hope this blast will not frighten and shake this "Little One," nor cause any mildew to come over him, as we know little ones are soon scared; but I think this "Little One" will stand a strong blast, so I am in hopes he will weather the storm. I am not sure who this "Little One" is, but I have a near guessing. I have heard him in Suffolk, and his language betrays him; but he is very seldom down in this part, for we have so many pious parsons, and such safe-walking, self-keeping folks, and such mongrel parsons, that they don't wish for such dangerous ministers, that preach such dangerous doctrines, so called; consequently, they won't take the trouble of sending for him; I wish they would. And, dear sir, as you are wishing the "Little One" to give you a definition upon "the whole armour of God," I have a work by me which shews it very clearly to my satisfaction; and for an example I will give you an outline. In conclusion, the author says, The believer has the truth of God bound round his mind; hope in Christ for an helmet upon his head; faith upon Christ, for a shield to ward off the devil's fiery darts; love to Christ, for a breastplate upon his heart; the word of Christ, as a sword in his hand, with which he fights; the two shoes of God the Father's will and God the Spirit's power