Association, addressing their communications to Mrs. Reed, Cambridge Heath, Hackney; Mrs. Matheson, 1, Barnsbury Street, Islington; Mrs. Meredith, 3, Durham Place, Lambeth. They recommend for adoption to similar societies, the following list of the subjects for conference, that there may, as much as possible, be preserved a unity of spirit with kindred associations. REGULAR MEETINGS FOR 1849. Held at the Vestry of New Broad Street Chapel, Bishopsgate. Subjects for Conference. Thursday, January 18. Address to children by Rev. W. Jones of Stepney College. Friday, February 2nd. How may children be brought to feel that divine truth can only be studied with success by dependance on divine aid? Friday, March 2nd. What are the best means we can adopt to induce habits of reflection and self-examination in young people? Friday, April 6th. The importance of training children to those habits of self-denial or self-control, which will tend to fit them for the privations of foreign service in the cause of Christ. Friday, May 4th. How can we account for the indifference to religion manifested by many young persons who have been piously educated? Friday, June 1st. In what way may the sympathy of children be so drawn to the abounding objects of sin and misery at home and abroad, as will most effectually qualify them to carry out the great purposes of divine love? Friday, July 6th. Meeting postponed. Friday, August 3rd. What is to be understood by a Christian education ? Friday, September 7th. How may we inspire our children with proper confidence, and at the same time discourage self-conceit? Friday, October 5th. What are the best methods of conveying religious instruction to they are fourteen or fifteen years of age? children under six, and from that period till tions in a parent or teacher are likely to Friday, November 2nd. What disposioperate to the permanent disadvantage of a child ? Friday, December 7th. What are the evils arising from unsanctified intellect, and how may they be guarded against ? RESIGNATION. The Rev. E. Le Fevre of Hail Weston, St. Neot's, Hunts, thinking it probable that he shall resign his pastorate there, requests us to say that he is open to invitation among a pious and devoted people. COLLECTANEA. SEPARATE SERVICES FOR CHILDREN. In the last number of the Evangelical Magazine, there is a paper, written by the editor, which we recommend earnestly to the attention of all who are disposed to hearken to the advice of Mrs. Davids, and others, "that the practice of taking children to public worship may be entirely abandoned by all parents and in all schools." It may be remembered by some of our readers that when the Prize Essay on Sunday Schools by Mrs. Davids was first published, we did not unite in those expressions of approbation with which it was honoured by most of our contemporaries. We then thought, after a careful perusal of the work that some of the opinions advocated by that lady were exceedingly mischievous; and we are glad to find that one of them is now taken in hand by Dr. Morison, and repudiated earnestly and effectively. For the sake of those of our readers who have not opportunity to read the whole article, we will extract three or four paragraphs. "What habits,' asks our intelligent and respected friend, Mrs. Davids, 'are really formed by this practice '-that is, 'the practice of taking little or ignorant children to the public services of the sanctuary?' Mrs. D.'s reply is as follows: The habits of sleeping, of inattention, and listlessness, of day-dreaming and vain thoughts, and of dislike and aversion to the sabbath and the sanctuary!' Now we are bold to say that all these phenomena are to be seen, in full perfection, in many adult hearers of the gospel. What preacher has not been afflicted with the sight of them? And what careful observer of facts has not beheld the sleeping, inattentive, listless, daydreaming, vain-thought stage, issuing in contempt of the sabbath, and neglect of the sanctuary? Yet who ever has ventured to propose that such adult hearers should be encouraged to withdraw from the public ministry of the word, because the habits they are yielding to are so injurious in their tendency The advice we should rather tender would be that ministers should adopt a more rousing style of preaching, that they should be less dry and consecutive in their modes of instruction, and that they should, by every possible ingenuity, endeavour to fix the wandering thoughts of careless listeners. "Doubtless there is a certain number of children now attendant upon the sanctuary, belonging to our schools and to the families of members and hearers, who are all that Mrs. D. describes them to be; but is the remedy not rather to be sought in the increased conscientiousness and assiduity of parents and Sunday-school teachers, and in the better adapted services of the Christian pulpit to the capacities and wants of little children, than in the alarming and hazardous VOL. XII.-FOURTH SERIES. proposal of removing them in mass from the house of God? After all, and we do not speak in ignorance of facts, there is a large body of children, both in the families of our friends and in our Sunday-schools, deeply interested in the services of the sanctuary, and affording ample proof that they love the pastor, that they listen with deep attention to his discourses, and that they would regard it as nothing short of a calamity, were the plans now in agitation carried into effect. We believe sincerely that this class of children may be almost indefinitely increased, if parents, and Sunday-school teachers, and pastors, will combine to discharge their duty towards them. As far as our observation has extended, the evil complained of so bitterly, and for the removal of which we are to run such tremendous risks, is but of very partial operation. Very few children belonging to the regular families in our places of worship, misconduct themselves in the way complained of; while the great majority of them are exemplary in their behaviour, and afford pleasing indications of attention to the word, and tender regard to the pastor. And as it respects any well-conducted Sunday-school, the instances of bad behaviour in the house of God are, we thoroughly believe, the excep tion and not the rule. We well know that some schools are most disorderly in the Christian sanctuary; but in such cases the remedy wanted is not to be sought in the removal of the children from all the hallowed associations of our Christian pastrocy and assemblies; but in a vastly improved mode of conducting the exercises and discipline of the Sunday-school. Here, in our humble judgment, lies the great and crying evil, the impression of which may be suffered to die away by the adaptation of the plans now under discussion, without the evil itself being in the slightest degree remedied. In wellconducted schools, where there are pious teachers, and a wise and energetic superintendent, instances of bad behaviour, or extreme listlessness in the house of God, are but rare, and are largely confined to a few mischievous children, who ought to be prevented from mingling with their fellows, unless they can be reduced to order and propriety. "We fear that other more malign causes than the fact of having frequented a place of worship in early years, must be assigned for the wandering thoughts, distracted attention, and incapacity of attending to preachers complained of by pious people. We should be relieved of many painful impressions, if we could trace them to so innocent a source. We should fear that the cares of life, that a worldly spirit, that a feeble and indistinct sense of religious obligation, that neglect of mental culture and studious habit, and that Satanic temptations had far more to do with the causes of such complaints than the old The weekly observation of the church and congregation, and what may be the disastrous results! "Let Sunday-school teachers put forth their full energies in perfecting the sabbath-school system. They have ample field here, without stepping out of their legitimate province. Let them not seek to deprive the pastor of the place which he has hitherto occupied. Let not the great link between him and the hitherto been exerted for good, and he will only discharge his duty to the Christian church by resisting the innovation proposed. "Our own course is decided. We shall keep our firm hold of the Sunday-school, and shall do our best, in the future as in the past, to perpetuate and increase the interest which young people feel in our ministrations." fashioned habit of bringing children to the house of God, hitherto regarded as a virtue, and not as an offence. Instead of reaching the conclusion of our respected friend, that the process of bringing children, when very young, to the house of God, would tend to make them listless and inattentive hearers in after life, we should, from a careful observation of the state of fact, be compelled to yield to the very opposite impression. We have had opportunities of watching the mental develop-Sunday-school be severed. His influence has ments of two distinct classes of adult hearers, the one class trained to an early and constant attendance upon our ordinary sabbath services, -the other having scarcely entered the house of God in early life; both classes, it may be, have become equally earnest and devout, but in intelligent hearing, powers of reflectiveness, and wakefulness to the minute lessons of Christian truth, the former class has been immeasurably superior to the latter. only exception to this rule that we have met with has been where there has been great original power, or superior intellectual culture. With all the drawbacks arising from human infirmity, and bad teaching at home, we should greatly prefer an audience composed of individuals who from childhood had attended the Christian sanctuary, under a faithful ministry, to one made up of persons who, in their early years had not frequented the stated and evangelical ministry of the word. Indeed we do not believe that good preaching is a listless or uninteresting thing even to very young children, as is constantly being proved by every devoted pastor, in the impressions produced by his ministry on the minds and hearts of the beloved children of his friends. We could point to many such cases, of children from seven to ten years of age, who are deeply thoughtful hearers of the word, and who are able to carry home the general outline and illustrations of most discourses to which they listen. "Our doctrinal theory is, that the Sundayschool is an appendage of the church, and that its attendance on the pastor's instructions is the visible symbol of that relationship. Let it be withdrawn from his ministry, and from its present association with the adult portion of our assemblies, and what palpable link of connexion between it and the church will remain? The Sunday-school institute will then become an isolated thing, looking, indeed, to the church for pecuniary support, but for little else. We hear teachers constantly pleading, and not without reason, that there ought to be a larger amount of sympathy between the church and the school. Will the removal of the school from the public services of the sanctuary augment or diminish this sympathy? We apprehend it will most sensibly impair it. The school is now a palpable fact, which cannot be overlooked, a pleasing spectacle, upon which the wise and the good look with prayerful delight. But remove it from the These remarks will not be understood to imply objections to occasional separate services for children, which may be, if discreetly conducted, highly advantageous; but objections to the withdrawal of children from the usual public worship of the sabbath. LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. A public valedictory service was held on Monday evening, November 20th, at the Poultry chapel, on occasion of the departure of the Rev. J. J. Freeman, one of the secretaries of the London Missionary Society, as a deputation to South Africa. The objects of his mission were thus sketched in an address delivered by the Rev. Dr. Leifchild on the occasion. "It is not a tour of pleasure and relaxation that you have to make. The demands upon your time and energies, both of mind and body, will be incessant. You will have to make yourself acquainted with the characters and labours of the missionaries and teachers in different countries, and in different parts of the same country; to investigate facts, to balance evidence. You may have to ascertain the state of missionary institutions, and to consider whether it may not be desirable to substitute, for a general superintendence, district and financial committees in correspondence with the parent society, and to collect such a body of information upon these and kindred subjects from all sources, as shall enable the directors in this country to be, in a manner, present with their agents in those distant lands, so as to give them the most suitable counsels and directions. Where misunderstandings may have arisen, what occasion will there be, on your part, for the exercise of patience, forbearance, impartiality, calm, deliberate judgment, to mediate so as to forfeit the esteem of none, and to obtain an acknowledgment from all of the justice and propriety of your decisions. This is no slight and easy task; and, with all your tact and experience, you will not be able to perform it without special assistance from above. I cannot forget the manner in which you discharged your delicate embassy to the West, and I advert to it to encourage the pleasing hope that in your present enterprise you will not be less successful. One object, I learn, of your mission will be to reduce as much as possible the expenditure of the society, by urging upon the congregations abroad, and especially those which are made up, in great part, of European residents, the duty of sus taining their own churches, and of helping forward the great missionary cause. It has been a great gratification to my mind that the directors have authorised you to assure Dr. Philip of their sympathy with him in the infirmities brought upon him by the services of the society, and of their readiness to contribute the necessary funds for his support and comfort whether he return to this his own native country or spend the remnant of his days where he now is. I am glad that the directors have not, for fear of a splenetic outery against the lavish expenditure of the society, indulged here a niggardly parsimony. There are Christians who have been benefited temporally and spiritually by the labours of God's servants, who, in strange contrast to the conduct of men of the world towards those who have toiled for them, would cast them off in old age, and forsake them when their strength faileth. I trust such will never find a justification for their conduct in that of the directors of the London Missionary Society. An opportunity, it may be, will be given for being again near to that island which was the early scene of your labours. You may find some remembrances of your labours there, and of those of your former colleagues. You will seize the occasion, if afforded, of promoting the re-opening of European intercourse with that island, and renewing the work, retarded but not destroyed, for the evangelization of that land. Such a prospect, after what you have suffered in the disappointment of your former hopes, will cheer no heart like your own. We live in times of public embarrassment, and it behoves all institutions to economise their means and expenditure to the utmost of their power, as this society is doing; but even that may be overruled for good. It may lead them to turn their attention more earnestly than ever to the raising up of native teachers among the heathen, and the putting of the congregations formed there upon their own resources." Prince Albert, requesting him to preside at the meeting for the announcement of the adjudicators and the distribution of prizes, offered to working men, for essays written by them on the temporal advantages of the sabbath to the labouring classes, of which there were 1,045 competitors, the following answer has been received through Lord Ashley by the adjudicators: His royal highness Prince Albert has desired me to express his regret that he is unable to comply with the request of the memorialists, and take the chair at the distribution of the prize essays on the sabbath. His royal highness, however, feels a very deep sympathy with the striking and meritorious efforts of the working classes, and he concludes his letter by saying, I think that now that more prizes are being collected for the hitherto unsuccessful candidates, I can best contribute towards the object by giving ten of the additional five pound prizes, and asking you to be kind enough to present them to the successful authors in my name.' 'The Pearl of Days has interested and pleased both the queen and myself extremely.'"- (Signed) ASHLEY. THE POLICY OF POPE PIUS IX. The policy of the fugitive pontiff is, and has been, truly pontifical. It is proper that whoever occupies the Roman see should "speak lies in hypocrisy," and this Mastai Ferretti has done from the beginning. After his accession, yielding to the necessity of the situation, he made a feint of encouraging political reform, relaxed the severity of government, a severity no longer practicable, gave an amnesty from which formidable criminals, and especially all priests, were carefully excluded, and, at a very cheap cost, purchased the credit of being humane and liberal. spark, gleaming in so dark a place, did look very brilliant at first. A few trifling police improvements threw the Italians into raptures, but no one thought of demanding that the Roman inquisition should be abolished, and its dungeons emptied. A The politics of Italy, in themselves considered, are of little importance to us. The new emperor of Austria may settle his quarrel as he can with the new governments of the peninsula, while we Englishmen may be content in the assurance that the King of nations will overrule all things well, but we cannot, in conscience, refrain from pointing out the policy of the bishop of Rome as contemptibly dishonest. No sentimental sympathy with the frighted priest restrains us from exhibiting his double-dealing as an exact type of the church which still owns him as her head, and listens to his voice, according to the Spanish Heraldo, as to the voice of the living God, whose infallibility, horribile dictu, has been confiscated by Roman demagogues.-The "In answer to a memorial forwarded through Lord Ashley to his royal highness | Christian Times. CORRESPONDENCE. PRIVATIONS OF MINISTERS' FAMILIES. To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. The fact that some ministers are blessed with ample competency is no reason for overlooking the circumstances of others, to whom or to whose families the Saviour might say, as he did to the church in Smyrna, "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty; but thou art rich." In the Baptist Magazine for January, 1848, reference was made to the possibility of lessening the privations of ministers' widows, by a plan suggested in that communication; and the writer, being only a narrator of what others have done, may, without any intention of giving a report of proceedings, state that ten experiments have now proved the utility and acceptableness of the plan. So that there is scope for bidding God-speed to those who, with limited means, have supplied appropriate articles of clothing to the wives, widows, or other female relatives of ministers, while there is good ground for say ing to others, "Go and do likewise." The writer could, if it were needed, give extracts from letter after letter to show that a kindness thought but little of in the quarter from which it emanated, has been welcomed as if it had been the communication of an angel from heaven. One female whose case was made known by a home missionary, mentions both her surprise and delight in a sentence which she concludes thus, "nothing of the kind having ever taken place before in this county that "Could ever I heard of." She then adds, you have heard the remarks of my little girl, who is eleven years of age, you would have been amused. How did the lady know you wanted that? and then, How did she know that would do for me ?" &c. Two females also, both wives of ministers in one of our large northern counties, write conjointly, and say, "We cannot reward the society for their kindness, but believe that they will be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." The writer need not mention that when a box is furnished, various items, besides clothing, suggest themselves to the thoughtful; and, in some of the letters, where the appropriation of the particulars is specified, one is reminded of days of privation in former times when Providence wore somewhat of the aspect of a miraculous dispensation. J. FREEMAN. Maryland Point, Stratford, Essex, EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT. The Secretary of the Young Men's Missionary Association, in aid of the Baptist Missionary Society, requests us to say that the lecture of the Rev. J. Aldis, on the Connexion of Idolatry with Architecture, which was to have been delivered in the evening of Wednesday, January 17th, is, in consequence of the meeting of the London Association on that evening, postponed to Wednesday, January 24th. A mistake occurs in our Supplement in reference to the address of a member of several committees, George Stevenson, Esq., which it is desirable to rectify. His present residence is at Blackheath, Kent. The secession of the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Wriothesley Noel from the Established has now taken place. On the first Lord's Church, which was anticipated in our last, day in December, he took leave of his congregation in St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, in the presence of crowds who had been atA principal tracted by the circumstances. reason, though not the only reason, we believe, for Mr. Noel's withdrawal from the church to which he belonged, is derived from his perception of the unscriptural character and baneful tendency of the union of that church with the state: on this subject he has been engaged for some time in preparing a volume which is now ready. Mr. Noel, as many of our readers are aware, is a man of acknowledged talent, thoroughly evangelical, and an influential speaker both in the pulpit and on the platform. He is a brother of the Earl of Gainsborough, and has been for some time one of her majesty's chaplains. He is now in the fiftieth year of his age; and his connexions and abilities would probably have secured him ere now a seat upon the bench of bishops, had not his ecclesiastical advancement been impeded by his conscientious liberality of opinion. The sacrifice which he has made is very great. May he be guided and prospered in his future course by that gracious Master whom it is obviously his desire to honour! A new edition of Mr. Hinton's Memoir of Mr. Knibb, whose portrait adorns our present number, is in the press. It is revised, but not abridged, though its price will be reduced to six shillings. |