Hackney Auxiliary, Hampstead Auxili- List of Eleven Societies and Associations The following Societies have recommended that the subject be reconsidered, with a view to alter or explain the Constitution of the Society: Bloomsbury Auxiliary, Bruton Ladies' Association, Derby Auxiliary, East Mendip Branch, Guernsey Auxiliary, Knaresborough Auxiliary, Retford Auxiliary, Retford Ladies' Association, Rugby Branch, Shoreditch Ladies' Association, Somerset (South-East) Branch. The above Lists are made up to the 6th of September. Speaking with Tongues. THE World gives the following strange account of a scene at the Rev. Mr. Irving's chapel, on Sunday, 16th ult. “During the sermon in the morning, a Miss Hall was compelled to retire to the vestry, where she was unable (as she herself says) to restrain herself, and spoke for some time in the unknown tongue, to the great surprise of the congregation, who did not seem prepared for the exhibition. The reverend gentleman resumed the subject in the evening, by expounding the 12th chapter of the 1st Corinthians. Towards the conclusion of to the circumstance of the morning, and the exposition, he took occasion to allude expressed his doubts whether he had done right in restraining the exercise of the gift in the church itself. At that moment a gentleman in the gallery, a Mr. Taplin, who keeps an academy in Castle Street, Holborn, rose from his seat, and commenced a violent harangue in the unknown tongue. The confusion occasioned was extreme. The whole congregation rose from their seats in affright. Several ladies screamed aloud, and others rushed to the doors. Some supposed that the building was in danger; others, that there had either been a murder, or an attempt to murder some person in the gallery; insomuch, that one gentleman actually called out to the pew-openers and beadle to Stop him, and not let him escape.' On both occasions the church was extremely crowded (particularly so in the evening), and it would be impossible to describe the confusion produced by this display of fanaticism. There was, indeed, in the strange unearthly sound and extraordiheart of the most stout-hearted. A nary power of voice enough to appal the great part of the congregation standing upon the seats to ascertain the cause of alarm, while the reverend gentleman, standing with arms extended, and occasionally beckoning them to silence, formed a scene which perhaps partook as much of the ridiculous as of the sublime. No attempt was made to stop the individual, and, after two or three minutes, Mr. Taplin became exhausted and sat down, and then the reverend gentleman concluded the service." We are grieved to hear that this absurd exhibition has been more than once repeated, and with additions. What will Mr. Irving do next? Sheffield District Meeting. ON Thursday, 15th Sept., the Halfyearly Meeting of the Unitarian Ministers of the district, was held at Sheffield. The Rev. N. Philipps, of Sheffield, introduced the service; and the Rev. R. Wallace, of Chesterfield, preached an excellent sermon, strongly advocating the Tract-lending Society, and all other plans that have a tendency to improve the moral and raise the intellectual condition of the industrious classes of the community. About thirty individuals diued together, and considerable interest was excited by Mr. Ward's and Mr. Palfreyman's remarks in behalf of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. Ministerial Removals. THE Rev. Charles Wicksteed, B. A., of the University of Glasgow, has accepted an invitation from the Congregation assembling at the Park Chapel, Liverpool. THE Rev. John Wright has resigned the situation he has so admirably filled for some years at Alnwick, and has accepted an invitation to become the minister of the Congregation at Sunderland. CORRESPONDENCE. In answer to P.'s inquiry, we can only refer to the Catalogues of the Unitarian Association, of the Christian Tract Society, and the Unitarian Booksellers' Lists occasionally advertised in our Work, as indicating the sources of supply for the new Tract Society established at Leicester, and similar institutions. The plan of a Depôt has been discussed in the Unitarian Association Committee, but found at present impracticable. We acknowledged last month the receipt of a letter from Mr. Knowles complaining of our notice (p. 646) of the want of precision in his statements. Were we to print the whole, it would be needful, as well as easy, to shew that the remark applies to his letter also. We give him the benefit which he claims in the following paragraph: "And, I think, I sufficiently explained myself, in regard to this matter, in a note which I subjoined, at the foot of the first page, to the following effect: 'I speak of the Committee as one from the beginning; for I believe there will be found, in the lists of names in the various reports, a connecting chain, uniting them with the original Committee.' This your Correspondent must have seen and read; and he ought, in common fairness, to have given me the benefit of it, in the article which has called forth these observations." The Lay Protestant Dissenter," of Islington, is referred to a "Discourse on the Personality of the Holy Spirit," by Dr. Pye Smith, published by Holdsworth and Ball. L.'s remarks relate to a plan which, after having been a considerable time under discussion, has been adopted, and is now in the course of being carried into effect. We think it undesirable to reopen the discussion. The substance of his observations deserves, and we will endeavour to procure for it, attention on the part of those to whom the conduct of the plan has been committed. Our "Constant Reader" should give the party referred to a hint to advertise. We are desired to inform the Subscribers to Dr. Priestley's Works, that the delivery of Vol. I. Part I., (containing the Memoirs and Correspondence,) is unavoidably postponed to Saturday, Nov. 26, at the Rooms of the Unitarian Associa-' tion, Walbrook. The Monthly Repository Office is removed to No. 67, Paternoster Row; where, in future, all communications to the Editor, Advertisements, &c., should be addressed. ERRATUM. P. 780, line 9, for "diet," read dirt. THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY AND REVIEW. NEW SERIES, No. LX. DECEMBER, 1831. THE CLAIMS OF THE POOR ON THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST. [A Sermon, preached at Finsbury Unitarian Chapel, November 13, by W. J. Fox, on behalf of the Unitarian Association, and for the purpose of enabling its Committee to establish Missions to the Poor of large Towns, on the plan pursued so successfully by Dr. Tuckerman, of Boston, U. S.] John xii. 8: "For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.” MANY parts of this great metropolis, and the observation applies, in different degrees, to other cities and large towns, present a sight which is imposing to the eye, and pleasant to the mind; but in which we can only feel unmixed complacency, while we forget the melancholy contrast to which a few paces may conduct us. We gaze on spacious streets, gay terraces and crescents, and stately squares. We know that the pomp, and ornament, and luxury, and festivity within, correspond with the external appearance. There are the costliest productions of modern art, and the noblest relics of ancient genius. There, according to the varying character of the inhabitant, is all that can be purchased to minister to sense, passion, or intellect. There, menials within and equipages without extend the volition of the master over time and space; enabling him to say, "Do this, and it is done;" and the chief toil with which he is taxed seems that of willing. And at hand is the ever open mart, the diversified bazaar, and the long line of individual competitors, displaying all that industry has produced, or art has invented, or commerce imported, glittering in endless variety and profusion. And at intervals rise the public buildings which tell of the diffusion of science, the amusements of society, the enactment of laws, the administration of justice, and the worship of God. The feelings which arise are those of admiration and complacency; the associations suggested are those of civilization, refinement, taste, order, intelligence, enjoyment, grandeur, and prosperity. Turn aside but a little, and you come into close-built streets, and yet narrower lanes and alleys, where the dismantled dwellings bear every mark of populous wretchedness. There are noisome smells, and loathsome sights, and disgusting sounds, from which the senses shrink. Here, too, we are aware that the outward appearance is a true index of that which is within; of a gradation whose highest point is the hard and ceaseless toil that humbles humanity into an automaton, with little more than the one sense of weariness and suffering, working for that which barely supplies sufficient strength to enable it to work on; and the lowest point, a depravity whose depths the imagination cannot sound without pollution. Here the human form and face are withered by the grasp of physical evil. Disease abides in these lurking-places, driven thither like a wild beast to its lair, and sustaining itself till the season when it may again stalk forth to terrify. The schoolmaster who is most abroad there, teaches lessons of which ignorance is bliss. The very children are initiated into the arts of fraud, theft, and violence. Horrid tales are told of premature licentiousness. The Sabbath sun penetrates not through the mist of their miseries and abominations. To the higher orders of society they feel themselves slaves or enemies-perhaps both-and ever ripe and ready for vindictive hostilities. Intoxication, in its most maddening form, is the most coveted enjoyment. And in passing on, by haunts of wretchedness and dens of vice, the emotions which rise are those of pity, apprehension, disgust, almost despair of man; the associations, those of barbarism, brutality, anguish, confusion, and guilt. Such are the extreme evils of poverty in cities, and such the appalling contrast which presents itself to the senses, the judgment, and the heart, and which ought long ago to have raised the question, Must these things be? in a voice of thunder, which would have enforced an answer. It is childish to shrink from the steady contemplation of the fact, that there are thousands upon thousands, in this vast and wealthy city, most wretchedly clothed, and fed, and lodged; ignorant and idle, dissolute and wicked; some born in this state, and others pressed down into it from a better; and, by their herding together, augmenting the contagiousness of the moral pestilence by which their souls are contaminated. It is worse than childish to rail at their depravity; they do but fulfil the destiny which is imposed on them by society; they do but exhibit the tendencies of the circumstances in which they are placed, and of which they are the victims. What may become their crime, was first their calamity. And there is no calamity like that of abandonment to physical privations, mental darkness, bad passions, corrupting associates, strong temptations, and the perpetual presence of a more favoured class of society, which, as they too often find, they yet oftener believe, to be supercilious, hostile, or heartless. It does not relieve the pressure of these facts upon the mind-it aggravates the pain, though it may lighten the disgust-to reflect on the beautiful outbreakings of moral good, the touching instances of integrity, disinterestedness, kindness, self-sacrifice, which are sometimes apparent even amid the worst of these scenes; and to believe, as we may, that there are many more such instances which shall have no publicity till the day of retribution, and are nowhere written but in God's book of remembrance. These are but manifestations of those moral capabilities which, even among the vilest, are universal. They shew what precious materials are thrown down and trampled on in the streets, there to become so offensive that we call for coercive and even vindictive legislation to sweep away the pollution, when it were better to employ the moral alchemy that should detect their inherent qualities, however obscured in this vile transformation, and reproduce them in their original lustre. Again, I ask, must these things be? Is this sickening contrast to be everlasting? Is there no remedy, no alleviation? Is there no better order of things predestined in the plans of Providence? And are we only to hope, and to wait? Are we to do nothing? Usually, what Providence decrees, man does. Good men's hopes, however remote, are at length realized by good men's exertions. If they "serve who only stand and wait," it is because their quiescence is commanded. Else should they join those who by thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest." The Christian inherits the motto of his Master, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." The prolonged existence of evil requires the continued energy of goodness for its correction. The one is a reason for the other, and implies its moral, though not its legal, obligation. In the Christian code, where there is misery, mercy is a duty. According to its dictates, charity is like prayer," right, fit, and our bounden duty;" not a matter of spontaneous practice or neglect, which involves no responsibility. And whatever may be thought of theories of human nature and society, it is a practical certainty that to the evils of poverty, as it exists especially in cities, there are antagonist powers which the Christian may and ought to call into exercise. The occasion, the moral necessity, constitutes his obligation, and impels our enforcing the claims of the poor on the followers of Christ. I speak of the followers of Christ, if not exclusively, yet pre-eminently, because in the gospel is to be found the mightiest counteractive influence to the evils of man's condition on the earth, and that which includes, blends, and gives the amplest scope, the best direction, and the surest |