include within it those conditions which He has laid down for the accep tance and forgiveness of the sinner; and that system will take best which complies most completely with these conditions. Can any plan be found which will achieve this end? If we look at the way of salvation as sketched out for us by our great Master, we shall find four conditions are most prominent.

I. The sinner must be brought into personal contact with the Saviour. It is, "Come unto Me"-a person listening to, obeying, and coming to a Person, which constitutes one great and essential element in the salvation of the soul.

II. He must perform an act of faith; he must trust in the word of the Lord Jesus; he must accept the promise of Him who died that he might be forgiven, and who lives that He may give eternal life to all who believe on Him.

III. He must accept the Lord Jesus as Master as well as Saviour; he must be willing, as far as he knows it, to take Christ's will instead of his own.

IV. But he must accept his right position. He has no title to any of the blessings which God has provided in Christ Jesus, unless he complies with the fundamental condition which belongs to the dependent nature of man, viz., that he should ask for them. Nowhere has the great Father dispensed with this condition. The truth remains, that when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins;" and that while He has all good things to give away, He promises to give them to those that ask Him.

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Personal contact with Christ, personal trust in Christ, personal surrender to the will of Christ, and personal prayer to Christ-these hold all that is needful to enable an anxious spirit to come out into the light and liberty of God's dear children.†

During many years experience with earnest inquirers, the writer has found the method embodied in the following illustration the most effective. After a service for young people held in the country, a girl about twelve expressed her longing to trust Christ as her Saviour. She was asked whether she was willing to be a Christian according to God's definition of the term, viz., to be forgiven in Christ's name, and then to accept Christ's will instead of her own as the law of her life. She replied, "Yes." "Then there is nothing to prevent your being a Christian now," was the answer. "Christ wants you to be His child now, and you want now to be His child: what is there to prevent it being settled and decided now?" (Texts of Scripture were adduced to prove these statements.) "Nothing." "Then if you will put yourself into His hands, He will accept you now. Do you think, if the Lord Jesus were to open the door of that room and come in here, take my

It was stated in the conversation that followed that the anxiety referred to in this paper is mainly stated in the second paragraph; anxiety for the forgiveness of sins and the commencement of the new life. Of course, there are cases where the anxiety is for the removal of sceptical doubts, etc., etc. Each "case" must be thoroughly and sympathetically studied, in the same way that a physician diagnoses each patient. The "case" should be mastered first, and then the prescription adapted to it presented.-ED.

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE ANXIOUS.

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place at your side and make you a promise, you could believe it?" "Yes." 66 Are you quite sure?" "Yes, quite sure." "Well, now I want you to remember that He Is here, nearer to you than I am. He is God, and is everywhere. You could not get away from Him if you were to try. And He has made you a promise-many promises. 'Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out;' 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Now if you were to come to Him, would He receive you? if you were to confess your sins here and now, would He keep His promise ?" "Yes." "Then shall we tell Him so; shall we tell Him-remember He is here-that you want to be His child, to be forgiven and accepted, and are ready to do His will in the days to come?" "Yes."

And this prayer was offered in her name, and the Lord Jesus was told that this young life had come-come as He had commanded; and He was asked to accept her according to His promise. And when the prayer was ended, she was asked what answer the Lord had given her; and the reply was, "He said yes." And that simple grasp of Christ's promise she had not lost when seen nearly a year afterwards; but was going on in all respects in the Christian life in a manner satisfactory to her godly parents.

It will be seen that the questions put in this case, the answers given, and the actions suggested and adopted, included the four conditions to which reference has previously been made, viz., the meeting of the soul with the Lord Jesus, the offer of the life to Him, the taking Him at His word, and all done in connection with the asking; and although not one word was said about faith or surrender or prayer as abstract propositions (which would only have confused), yet these were all performed, and the young spirit immediately afterwards took her first conscious step in the Christian life-that of accepting salvation from the Lord through faith in Him and His promise.

The same method has been adopted by the writer with anxious ones in many parts of the country, and not only have the results been almost uniformly successful, but, as far as can be ascertained, the number of those who have afterwards declined from Him has been singularly small.

In some few cases it may be found that in consequence of natural timidity, ignorance of God's Word, or from the influence of early training, the plan above suggested may not be successful at once in bestowing the peace which faith in Jesus brings with it. In such instances the only way appears to be to point out very earnestly that as faith is (as love is, and hope and joy) of the operation of the Holy Spirit, and God has promised His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, the anxious one should, with all intensity, in retirement seek this best of all gifts, so that the faith may be produced; and at the same time the promise of the Lord Jesus concerning the secret outpouring of the soul to the great Father, and His willingness to grant the open reward, can very effectively be introduced.

There is a caution which it is very necessary to keep before the minds of those with whom we thus deal. It is especially necessary that they who want to belong to Christ should be instructed that this involves a spirit of obedience to the Lord Jesus as an essential condition

of acceptance by Him. It is to be feared that much evil has happened from the preaching and teaching of an imperfect and incomplete gospel. Anxious ones, and indeed whole audiences, are told that in order to be saved, they have "only to believe." This would be true if belief were made to comprise all that the New Testament includes in that word. But unfortunately the belief in Christ as the Lord and Master and King of the life is often left out altogether, and belief in Him as the Sacrifice for sin is all that is inculcated. The result is, that when the life comes to be tested by hardship and temptation, it sometimes gives way. A man who accepts Christianity only as a means of being "saved," is not prepared to give up his own ways and accept God's ways instead; and when he finds that this is involved in the religion of Jesus, he is apt to go back and walk no more with Him. This insufficient explanation of the gospel probably accounts for the numerous declensions amongst those who profess to find peace at revival services. Be it understood, no objection is intended to such services; they have been means of great good, and might be made more useful than ever; the objection is to the half-exhibition of God's way of salvation which is so often presented to those who attend them.

Another word of caution may be given to those who work amongst audiences where professedly anxious ones are found, and that is-Do not always accept without examination the statement on the part of any one, especially young people, that he or she is anxious. To do so, and then to pursue the method previously sketched, might lead to selfdeception on the part of the nature thus dealt with. A few wise yet kindly questions would probably reveal to the questioner the condition of the spirit brought into contact with his own, so that a momentary effervescence of the feelings following an impassioned appeal should not be mistaken for a real and abiding desire after Christ's salvation. And the plan of putting questions which suggest answers from God's Word, and so induce the listener to apply His truth to his or her own experience, is often very helpful-mainly, of course, to those who have been instructed in Sabbath schools and Christian homes. It is wonderful to find how much information concerning the great Father and His Son Jesus Christ exists in the minds of those who attend public services, who have never even dreamed that it had any personal application to themselves. And any plan which sets them thinking, and so induces their making this application for themselves, will manifestly strengthen their hold upon the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And always it is well to impress upon those anxious ones whom we have striven to bring, or believe we have brought, to the Lord Jesus, the absolute necessity of their seeking at the earliest possible moment an interview alone with Him, where all that has been said and done shall be talked over again, and the surrender personally and deliberately ratified, and then, that afterwards these interviews must be constant and habitual; thus perpetuating that personal contact with Jesus, trust in Jesus, and surrender to Jesus, in connection with earnest prayer, which are so needful not only to the soul's laying hold of Him in the first instance, but to its keeping hold of Him all through its future history. S. D. RICKARDS.

What is the “General Baptist Association ?”

"ARE there one hundred and nine General Baptist Associations ?" said a poor benighted Londoner to me last Sunday, as he looked over one of the programmes of our forthcoming gatherings; for like too many Londoners he knows little or nothing of "organised Christianity," although he is a Baptist, and a member of one of our own churches.

Of course I had to confess that there is but one General Baptist Association, and that the programme referred to the 109th series of Annual Meetings for the transaction of the business of the federation of churches bearing the General Baptist name, and co-operating for the common objects of that organisation.

The name is not too clear, however, is it? One can easily understand the mistake occurring. If we wished to state facts, we ought to call ourselves the General Baptist Assembly, and describe the meetings to be held next week as our 109th Annual Gathering.

Another Londoner, with that hard, matter-of-fact spirit which reaches its perfection in this metropolis, wished to know of what the Association consists, and what it does, and whether it is really a living and serviceable thing. I will put my answers to him down in due order: for his questions are very likely on other lips.

I. WHAT IS THE GENERAL BAPTIST ASSOCIATION?

It is a federation of Christian churches: not an accidental meeting, nor even a geographically determined Association of Christian communities; but a distinct federation, like that of the States in America, and of the Cantons in Switzerland. Severally, the churches are spiritual republics, self-governing and independent, save in respect of those great common objects for the attainment of which they are federalised. Into this federation all our members come, and its action they determine at these Annual Assemblies.

That is what the Association really is: but the term "Association" is also applied to the series of meetings, spread over four or five days, and held every June in different parts of the country, according to a definite order of succession. In these meetings the churches, by means of their pastors and representatives, transact all denominational business, such as that relating to Missions, Home and Foreign, the training of ministers; the work of local preachers, Sunday schools, the hymn book, the Magazine; political and social questions, etc. They review the work of the past year, and arrange that for the year to come; recast whatever may require recasting; and seek generally to promote the spirituality, the vigour, and the usefulness of the whole federation.

II. WHAT ARE THE DISTINCTIVE MARKS OF THE CHURCHES FORMING THE GENERAL BAPTIST ASSOCIATION ?

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1. First we are Christians, and there is no name we prize more highly than that which unites us with all believers in the Lord Jesus.

2. We are Baptists, and in fact are the lineal descendants of the oldest Baptists in this country. We count baptism by immersion the

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believer's privilege, and hold it a wrong to debar him from it by any church arrangements. We also hold that baptism is a duty; and in virtue of our convictions on this subject take our place by the side of all kinds of Baptists in the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

3. But we are "broad guage" Baptists. NONE of our churches, so far as the writer knows, practises "strict and exclusive communion" at the Lord's table. Some of them maintain that the privileges of church fellowship ought also to be open to all who receive the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and King; and that baptism should be treated as a privilege and duty carefully and earnestly enforced, but not exalted into a condition of church membership. On these questions, however, churches differ.

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4. The chief feature of our church life is described in the word General"-a term expressive of our faith in the THREE GRAND

UNIVERSALITIES OF THE GOSPEL REVELATION.

We hold and teach (a.) The universality of the love of God to men. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (b.) The universality of the redeeming work of the Son for men. "For He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Christ's death, our creed says, is a provision of salvation "FOR ALL THE SINS OF ALL MEN." (c.) The universality of the convincing work of the Spirit in men. "When He is come He will convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come."

The sublime end contemplated in this wonderful manifestation, which is at once one and yet threefold, is RIGHTEOUSNESS; an ever active, tender, and strong love of right, fully displayed in God; and to be finally wrought out by His grace in man, His child.

This we maintain to be "the mind of God;" and fundamental to any true representation of the character of God. In our judgment, God's saving work for the world is not restricted by any Divine decree, by any foregoing election, or any withholding of the convincing work of the Holy Spirit. Men are "lost," and continue so for no other reason than that they will not be saved.

But do not other churches hold and teach these doctrines? No doubt. Why, then, do you not "drop" the name of "General," and simply call yourselves Baptists? First of all, let it be said, we care nothing for either name in itself, and we mostly speak of our places of worship by the names of the streets or roads where they are located, as Stoney Street Chapel, Nottingham; North Parade Chapel, Halifax, and so on.

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Secondly of the two names we have, there is no more reason for giving up the first than there is for parting with the second. Many Independents hold, and some teach our views of baptism (though with an uncomfortable addition); but Baptists generally do not argue from the admitted and increasing prevalence of their views that any good would come from "dropping" the name of Baptist. It would merely be allowing a fact to go without a useful label.