the first tears of sorrow for sin, but also of soon have to learn much from Baptists here, joy. Is sin our heaviest burden? Are it seems likely to be much of warning, not Christ and his grace our highest joy? An of wisdom. The principles of free commuhour shall come when we must see him:-nion require mixed membership and equal how will it be with us then? We are bap- privileges, the choice of officers being left tized, and are members of a Christian church, but yet we may not have the true wedding garment. May the truth, therefore, make us truly humble and poor in spirit; but may the Lord also send his Spirit to give the comfort the world cannot give you. Farewell! I have here received impressions which I shall retain to the end of my life. Peace be with you! quite free. Consistency, to this extent, is not yet generally practised. When it shall be so, and Baptist churches have become mixed churches, composed of persons of all creeds, all errors, and all misbehaviour, not deemed incompatible with a state of salvation, having Pædobaptist officers, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Independent, as numbers shall decide, what will there be for us to "glory" in? "Liberality," in parting with resemblance to the first churches, and PROGRESS OF ENGLISH BAPTIST CHURCHES" catholicity" of tolerated errors, can yield "TOWARDS EXTINCTION." (Communicated.) THE "New York Chronicle" inserts almost weekly a letter from its English correspondent. In one recently inserted, this correspondent says: us little "honour,"-little "glory." More likely is it that the fruit will be the corruption of all truth, the loss of all vital energy, "narrow bigotry," the blind frenzy, as this and the ultimate collapse of death. The writer wishes us to think it, of Booth and Fuller, has not stopped in America the progress of Baptist sentiments, as "liberality," "Baptists are always in advance. The though as yet so partially adopted by its van of every enterprize has been led by very friends, has stopped it in England. them. "The progress of Baptist sentiment So soon as the tide of this "liberality" shall in the last hundred years" has been marked. reach its true height, it will assuredly turn, ......Chapel after chapel is rising in many even here. Meanwhile, American Baptists parts, especially near the metropolis; ever have spoken in advance as to this idea of the ecclesiastical platform is of the broadest remodelling their churches. The noble stacharacter. In the membership of the church ture of their success, with its giant seventhere is to be no distinction. A Baptist foot height, is well able to rebuke the prepastor will have the right of occupying the sumption of our dwarfish growth, for daring pulpit, and beyond this there is nothing to talk of remodelling that noble form, to else to distinguish it as a Baptist church. imitate our own important littleness. "If," The last effort in this direction goes even says Mr. T. F. Curtis, in his work on combeyond this. Baptism is to be an open munion, p. 214, "if we should decide this question, and the officers of the church are question by the comparative increase of the to be chosen by the majority. The liber- Baptist denomination in Great Britain, ality-the plain catholicity of these views where mixed communion generally prevails, are the glory of our age. They reflect the and in this country, where the opposite largest honour upon the mover in these practice is almost universal, we shall find matters. The narrow bigotry of our fore- such facts as the following:-there are fathers, of our brother Fulton and others in 982,101 members of Baptist Churches in later times, is thrown aside by the more the United States to 148,179 in Great Briintelligent and respectable of our body. tain, or nearly seven to one. Or if we comOur advances towards extinctions are rapid, and probably some increasing light will pare the number of churches, we find in the United States, 14,078; in Great Britain, lead to the discovery that separate organi- 1,881. If we contrast the number of orzations for the propagation of our distinctive dained ministers, we find in the United views, in connection with the great Christian States, 8,826; in Great Britain, 1,382* The verities with which they are associated, and comparison of present numbers appears to from which they necessarily spring, is improper. We cannot stop. Nor should we In this direction the tide is set in, and every year augments its influence and increases its power. Soon you will have much to learn from us-to remodel those institutions your Stoughtons, Baldwins, Sharps, and Cones, have laboured so ear nestly to bring up." If the Baptists of the United States should! us a fair test. The rise of the Baptists as a denomination in England and in this country was at about the same time, under cir cumstances even much more favourable to their progress in the old than in the new country. On the one hand it is true that, the more free toleration of religious opinions and the absence of an established church, The figures are taken from Baptist Almanack for 1849. might seem most favourable to their increase England to tempt our American brethre" in this country; but on the other, the com- to follow a course in which our "advances parative smallness of the population, until towards extinctions are rapid," and in which within a few years, the difficulty of changing "we cannot stop" till all our "separate or the sentiments of a nation scattered re-ganizations," including churches like those motely, the poverty of a young people, all of the New Testament, shall have been des make it a matter of surprise that Baptist troyed? sentiments should have spread as they have. Under God, this has originated in their assuming an independent and uncompromising basis, in their churches being formed, not on Robert Hall's plan of mixed membership, but upon that derived from the apostolic practice of making baptism a pre-requisite to membership in their churches." As to ministerial education, Mr. Curtis says:-"Such is the effect of habits of selfreliance and independent energy, fostered, in part at least, by the principles upon which the denomination in this country has acted in regard to their church fellowship, that, instead of fire colleges, with seventy-eight students, which they have in Great Britain, there are in the United States fifteen colleges with 1,409 students, and seven theological institutions with 152 students." Provincial. ASTLEY BRIDGE, NEAR BOLTON. THE friends connected with the Baptist cause in the above village, held their annual meeting on behalf of the continental missions, on the 8th and 9th November, 1857. On Lord's-day, November 8, two sermons were preached by the Rev. T. Dawson, of Liverpool. On the following Monday evening, a large party partook of tea together; after which the usual public meeting was held, presided over by Mr. John Holt. The report presented to the meeting was of a very cheering character, and shewed that notwithstanding the pressure of the times, and a heavy debt incurred by our friends in connection with their own place As to benevolent action, he says: "In active piety and benevolence, fairly computed, they [the American Baptists] perhaps hardly come behind any denomination of worship, the zeal and activity which in any country. That inertness which is have heretofore distinguished them in their the characteristic symptom and ultimate support of the Baptist Evangelical Society, destruction of all bigotry and narrowness certainly fails to show itself." The remain undiminished. The contributions through the year, together with collections at the annual meetings, amounted to £12 88. 4d., which enabled our friends, after deducting the necessary expenses, to hand over £10 8s., towards the support of our missions. The meeting was subsequently addressed by the Rev. P. Prout, T. Dawson, W. K. Armstrong, B. A., J. Howe, and J. M. Ryland. There was a crowded assembly, composed for the most part of young persons, all of whom appeared deeply interested in the proceedings of the evening. J. H. "The hold," he says, "which Baptist sentiments have taken upon the mind of the public at large" in America, affords "the most striking proof of the fallacy of Robert Hall's opinion, that it is only by mixing in all church relations with Padobaptists that our sentiments would ever find their way to their hearts, or even attract their attention. The practice of immersion in the Method ist church has become quite common. disuse of infant baptism by Presbyterian and Congregational members is now so general, and the decline of it every year becoming so much more rapid, that it is evident the system is fast losing its hold upon the faith of those denominations...... Indeed, there is hardly a denomination in the United States that has not been powerfully ADDRESS AND PRESENTATION TO REV. impressed by Baptist sentiments......If we look forward to the future, there appears every probability of a very general, if not THE friends of Mr. Brown assembled on universal spread of our views of this ordi- Monday evening, the 2nd instant, in the nance, both as to its mode and subjects. school-house adjoining his chapel, when, Under God, this seems to have been brought after partaking of tea, they presented him, about by the decided stand taken by the de- in token of regard, with a valuable testimonomination. To have been less uncompro- nial. Henry Montgomery, Esq., Reformed mising would have diminished the importance Presbyterian, presided. Mr. Johnston, of and prevalence of Baptist sentiments." Donaghadee, esteemed by all who know With such experience, what is there in him, read the address. Appropriate and Irish. JOHN BROWN, A. M., CONLIG. SOCIETY. instructive speeches were then delivered by RECEIVED FOR BAPTIST EVANGELICAL the Messrs. Bass (Wesleyan), Argue (New Connexion), and Eccles (Baptist). The meeting was an Evangelical Alliance in minature. Every one seemed delighted to honour the guest of the evening. BAPTISMS. ... Collections at Trinity Chapel, BY MR. T. COCKSHOTT. BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE.-On Sabbath morning, November 1st, eight persons were baptized at Trinity Chapel, by the Rev. H. J. Betts. This was the first baptism in Hellifield Chapel Collection the new chapel. A thousand persons were Richard Hardacre, Esq. present, and the occasion was one of deep Rev. A. Spencer, Long Preston solemnity. In the afternoon, thirteen were added to the church. BY REV. MR. BARKER. Leighton Buzzard. Barker ....... BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE.-On Sabbath Rev. G. morning, Nov. 1, ten candidates were bap- Mr. J. Purser tized at Sion Chapel, by Rev. J. P. Chown. Mr. R. Purser Three more professed believers were im- Mr. Woodman, Tring mersed into the the name of the Holy Mr. Aveline Trinity, by the Rev. John Stock, in Morice- Mr. Kent square Chapel, Devonport, on the evening Bible Class of Lord's-day, the 25th October. The Smaller Sums ........... chapel was well filled in every part and the deepest solemnity prevailed. KINGSTON-ON-THAMES.-We have yet to continue our song of praise, for the faithful message here delivered is still being owned and blessed by the Most High. On Wednesday evening, October 28th, our minister Mr. T. W. Medhurst, was privileged to baptize four sisters and a brother, in accordance with the Divine command. We then had proof that Christ receives all who are led to go Him, irrespective of age or circumstances, for side by side, on the solemn occasion, stood the venerable sister of eighty, and a child of fourteen from the Sunday-school, the one owning the Saviour, at the eleventh hour, the other giving the spring time of her life to God. The sermon was from Psalm lxviii. 13. DEATH. 5 1 1 1 1 1 DEPARTED this life, on the 15th Nov., at his residence, Handsworth, near Birmingham, in the 82nd year of his age, the Rev. Thomas Morgan, who for several years was successively pastor of Cannon-street, and Bond-street Baptist Churches, Birmingham. In the strength of his days he was a sound, Mr. D. Blair............ solid, useful minister of the gospel, and Mr. E. Mc Kenzie was honoured with success above many. A Friend He was a man of great modesty, and of Mr. James Allan retired habits. His spirit was eminently Mrs. Diamond gentle and kind, and his great influence A Friend among the churches was always exercised in Mr. D. W. Miams favour of whatever tended to promote their Mr. Hugh Dunlop prosperity and peace. Of him it may be truly Mr. John Williamson said--"The memory of the just is blessed." Mr. John Taylor 0 10 6 0 2 0 2 6 .......... THE year 1857 appears likely to end in gloom. A terrible rebellion abroad, great commercial embarrassments at home, and a wide-spread contempt for human life that allows scarcely a week to pass without its murder, are events too much calculated to darken the close of the year to admit of present hope. Added to these there is another circumstance adapted to create an uneasy feeling in the breast of every lover of his country, and that is the unfavourable opinion we are rapidly creating among our continental neighbours. The Gazette de France expresses this opinion in very strong terms. In reference to our proceedings in India, and especially at the taking of Delhi, it remarks of England that "the spectacle which she has given to the world, places her out of the pale of civilisation and humanity. It is impossible to doubt that the senti ment of universal reprobation which she has excited must have important consequences for her." The Constitutionnel follows in the same strain, and quoting from a letter written by a British officer at Delhi says, " Forty or fifty persons had got together and concealed themselves in some houses; they were not mutineers, but residents, who, relying upon our habitual clemency, hoped for pardon. I am glad to say they were disappointed." The journal then adds, "We feel bound to tell them (the English) frankly that acts such as these are not of a nature to conciliate sympathy for them in France." To estimate these opinions correctly we should remember that England is at the head of the Christian world, and that we cannot injure our national reputation, without injuring in an equal degree the Christian faith which has been entrusted to our keeping. What then should we do but labour with all our might to teach our children, our country, and the world, that there is nothing under heaven that exalteth a nation but **righteousness?" (Prov. xiv. 34.) Printed by JOSEPH BRISCOE, 28. Banner Street, in the Parish of St. Luke, in the County of Middlesex; and published by ARTHUR HALL and GEORGE VIRTUE, 25, Paternoster Row, in the Parish of St. Faith, under St. Paul's, in the City of London.-TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1857. Baptisms 23, 52, 97, 124, 150, 178, 204, 228, 231, Baptist Building Fund.. ......... 274 .... 202 29 2. Causes of weakness 58, 78 Geissler, Mr., Charge addressed to ...... 3. Means of recovery.... 129 Northern Branch 97, ... 273 148 .......... 122, 250 German Mission 99 138 Tract Society Baptists, solemn Duty of, on the Communion Receipts..... 24, 07, 150, 96 Hinton, Mr., and the Communion Question 195 .... 276 Holy of Holies .... Hungary Question..... 229 in America .......... ......... 260 German, in America 247 Imputed Righteousness, Doctrine of............ 139 225 Independent Thinkers......... ........... 257 Reliever's Estimate of the Bible 31 INTELLIGENCE: Foreign.-Africa ..46, 47, 48, 62 Australia 15 British India ....... .................221, 270 Burnham, Anniversary Sermons at 227 90 224 Hungary 277 Norway 136 Prussia 269 201 .................... 178 ..........225, 245 ....... 226 |