was taken ill, he sang an anthem alone, and joined in several other tunes. Soon after he retired to rest, he was seized with difficult breathing, produced by apoplexy of the lungs, from which he suffered more or less until he died. He had, however, set his house in order, and all was well. A brother minister who visited him asked him if he felt the value of the truths he had preached to others, and his immediate reply was, " O, yes; Christ is the Rock-my Rock."

Two days before his departure, and the last of his consciousness, one of his sons, seeing that his end was nigh, said, "Are you happy, father?" He looked up with a sweet smile, and replied in a peculiarly emphatic manner, "Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better,'-far better, but how far better, who can tell? No one but he who has passed through the valley of the shadow of death."

He then exclaimed, "It is a truth, John; it is a truth." "What is, father?" "The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my God, my strength, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, and my high tower."

With this happy conviction he fell asleep in Jesus on the evening of Saturday the 3rd March, 1849, in the 83rd year of his age.

The following week his mortal remains were interred at Kingston. It was felt by many in the neighbourhood that a good man had left this world, and they showed marked tokens of respect for his memory. Two funeral sermons were preached on the occasion-one at Kingston, on the 11th of March, by the Rev. J. Edwards, minister of the chapel there-the other at Thames Ditton, on the 18th, by the Rev. J. Watson, resident tutor of Hackney College, who was requested to undertake this service owing to a family connexion. The audience was large at both places, and manifested the deepest interest in the details that were given of the deceased, especially in those last sounds that died away when he entered on the slumber which, like a neutral territory, touches at once on conscious existence and immortality.

He will long be remembered by many, and all the more so for the benignant expression which ever played over his venerable countenance. He retained it to the last; and, if we may be allowed to give our impressions graphically, stood at fourscore years, and after, on the borders of the other world, looking, as one would wish all old men to look, like aged Innocence smiling at Time.

AUTUMNAL MEETINGS OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES, HELD AT SHEFFIELD, OCT. 8, 9, 10 & 11. WE have just returned from these hallowed seasons of fraternal intercourse. Had we been in doubt as to the practicableness, and utility of organised union among Independents, we believe that what we have seen, and heard, and felt, during the sittings of the Union, would have removed all our scruples.

We shall leave all details of business to the proper organs of the Union; but we cannot forbear announcing a few delightful facts as they occurred during our visit to Sheffield, on the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th of October. We had heard it surmised that the vis inertia is a marked element in the religious society of Sheffield. Now, we are constrained to say, that the late sessions of the Union afforded practical demonstration of the utterly erroneous character of such an impression. The Congregational Pastors of Sheffield vied with the members of their several churches, in securing one of the most animating and delightful fellowships ever convened on any similar occasion. Never were the members of the Union more cordially received, or more hospitably entertained.

Indeed, all who attended the meetings will long cherish the remembrance of the Christian courtesy and kindness of the men of Sheffield.

The opening devotional service of the Union was full of promise. Queen Street Chapel was quite filled. The spirit of devout prayer fell on the assembled multitude, and the Rev. Thos. Scales, of Leeds, excelled even himself in the appropriate and earnest counsels which fell from his lips. This truly spiritual service gave a tone to the subsequent engagements of the Union.

Not less happy was the chairman of the Union, in his opening address, on the morning of Tuesday 9th. Would that all our ministers and congregations could fall into the spirit of that address! Then would error, and coldness, and inconsistency, pass away from the midst of us: and the "spirit of wisdom and power, and of a sound mind" would rest upon all the churches of our order.

The annual sermon, by Dr. Vaughan, on the evening of the 9th, which thoroughly sifted the merits of German spiritualism, now attempted to be introduced into England, was a powerful and well-sustained discourse;

greatly calculated to guard young and ambitious minds from sympathy with this extremely subtle and dangerous form of scepticism. We are glad that the preacher has consented to its publication; for although the moral pestilence has not as yet spread very widely among us, we believe that this is mainly owing to the determined resistance with which it has been encountered at the outset.

Very happily, as we think, though without concert, Dr. Halley, who prepared the annual letter to the churches, followed in the same track with Dr. Vaughan; but in a style highly calculated to make its appeal to the common mind of the churches. It was terse, lucid, convincing, and practical, in a high degree, and will be read by thousands with unmingled satisfaction and delight.

The matters of business which occupied the Union were various and important, and were treated in a temper of mind highly Christian and fraternal.

After much interesting discussion on the proposed alteration by government in the London Post Office, a memorial was adopted, not only condemning the measure in contemplation by the Post Office authorities, but praying that all postal business throughout the country may be suspended on the Lord's day. Some respected brethren objected altogether to an appeal to government on such a subject, while others expressed hesitation on the point of suspending all postal movements on the Sabbath day; but the memorial was ultimately carried by a large majority of the assembly.

A very delightful feeling was diffused through the assembly by the presence of the Rev. Mr. Culling, of Leith, the delegate to the Union from the Congregational Union of Scotland. He was received with much cordiality; and furnished details respecting the rise, and progress, and present state of Congregationalism in Scotland of a highly interesting character. Dr. Morison paid a just compliment to the zeal, devotedness, and Christian charity and disinterestedness of the respected delegate.

Some very interesting papers were read by the secretary, and commented upon by the assembly, on the better support of the pastors of our more feeble churches. If any real improvement could be made in this direction, it would be one of the happiest and most desirable changes in our practical economy. As the papers read will be laid before the churches, we trust they will be seriously pondered by the deacons and members of the community at large.

A fraternal conference was held upon the state of the Congregational denomination, in which many gratifying statements were made, indicative of something like Christian progress

VOL. XXVII.

and revival in the body at large. We cannot help thinking that gloomy representations on this subject, founded on partial inductions, are practically injurious, just as much so, perhaps, as over-sanguine announcements of religious prosperity.

One of the most profitable engagements of the Union was the season devoted to prayer, on Thursday morning, the 11th of October, with reference to the state of the country. Mr. Kelly, of Liverpool, opened the service with some lucid and instructive observations on the right interpretation of national visitations, when Messrs.' J. Spence, Morley, and Glyde, offered up prayer and thanksgiving in a deeply devotional strain, which called into exercise the pious feelings of the assembly generally, and rendered the occasion very refreshing to all present.

In addition to all this, the secretary, Mr. Wells, furnished an account of the course which had been adopted, in the metropolis, in establishing lectures to the working classes, recommending the same plan to the brethren in the provinces. S. Morley, Esq., read a very interesting paper on the proceedings and prospects of the Board for General Education, and intimated the wish of the Board to secure the premises of Homerton College for the purposes of the Normal School. We do hope that this proposal of the Board will be realised, and that the necessary funds will be secured by the wealthy friends of the denomination.

Dr. Massie read a well-digested paper on the state of British Missions, commending them earnestly to the vigorous support of the churches.

A liberal resolution of acknowledgment to the conductors of our periodical literature, not confined to the organs of the Union, was passed, with evident satisfaction, by the assembly, which was responded to by Drs. Vaughan, Morison, Campbell, and Josiah Conder, Esq.

Suitable resolutions were also proposed and carried on the subject of church rates, and the continuance of the regium donum.

The usual public meeting, on behalf of British Missions, was held at the Rev. Thos. Smith's chapel, on Wednesday evening, the 10th, John Crossley, Esq., in the chair. The Nether chapel was crowded to excess, and the addresses were received with marked interest and delight.

The educational meeting was held in the same place of worship, and presided over by the same chairman, on the evening of the 11th.

Thus terminated a series of engagements, in which there was much to edify and comfort, and but little to awaken feelings of an opposite class. Not a single uncharitable utterance was heard in reference to other

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bodies of Christians. The meeting was truly an Evangelical Alliance.

THIRD ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.

ONE of our most venerable brethren thus writes from Glasgow, in reference to this assembly:-" Our meetings have been most numerously attended, and the Spirit of our Divine Master has, I trust, been in the midst of us; brotherly love has prevailed, and the bonds of Christian fellowship have been drawn more closely than ever." In this news we exceedingly rejoice, inasmuch as union among all Christians is an object which must ever lie near to our hearts.

At the public meeting, in the City Hall, the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel presided, and was surrounded by representatives of most of the sections into which the Christian church is divided in this country. Many valued members of the Alliance were absent through indisposition.

The first meeting for Conference was held on Wednesday morning, the 10th of October, in the Merchants' Hall, at which Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, the president, took the chair. The report was very long, but its foreign details were deeply interesting, and afforded evidence of the watchful interest which the Committee had taken in the cause of religious liberty, particularly in the well-known case of Dr. Achilli. The state of the finances was fully explained, from which it appeared that the Committee had used their best efforts to harmonise the income and expenditure of the Alliance.

On the evening of Wednesday, a conversational meeting was held in the City Hall, which was crowded to excess; John Henderson, Esq., one of the most catholic men of the age, presided. At this meeting the Rev. A. Monod furnished some most animating details of the progress of Evangelical religion in France, but at the same time intimated that the government of his country was maturing a national system for the education of the humbler classes, which would prove most injurious to Protestant liberty, inasmuch as it would commit the public schools thus established into the hands of the priests.

Mr. Monod, in alluding to the French expedition to Rome, stated that the Roman Catholic press of France had been constrained to acknowledge, from what had happened, that Rome, which enjoyed the privilege of the Pope's rule, was thereby disqualified for receiving the blessing of civil liberty.

At this meeting, the Rev. Ridley Herschell, who has lately visited all the Missionary stations of the Free Church of Scotland among the Jews, bore ample testimony to the

faithful and devoted labours of the missionaries. He stated some interesting facts relative to the social and religious state of the Jews upon the continent. In all the courts of Europe, Jews are found occupying govern ment posts. In Germany they are at the head of the newspaper press, by which 9,000,000 of Jews, throughout the world, are brought into communication with each other. Upon infidel principles mainly they are now advocating the union of Christians and Jews. They hold that religion is the philosophy for an age, and that, as Judaism was the philosophy of a past age, a union between Judaism and Christianity is the philosophy for the present.

Sir Culling E. Eardley made some very gratifying statements in reference to the state of religion in the south of Italy. A Florentine socialist had employed very freely quotations from Scripture, in certain letters which he had addressed to the archbishop of Florence, for the purpose of proving that the Roman Catholic religion was the great apostacy predicted both in the Old and New Testament Scriptures. In the city of Florence, also, an edition of D'Aubigné's Reformation has been published and sold.

On Thursday, Dr. Leifchild presided at the morning meeting, and delivered an excellent address on the principles of the union. Much time was spent at this sitting on the subject of the late rupture among the Wesleyans. The subject, after friendly discussion, was wisely withdrawn. A memorial to Lord John Russell and the Postmaster General was adopted, against opening the Post Office on Sundays.

On the evening of Thursday, the last meeting of the Alliance was held, when truly animating and edifying addresses were delivered by Drs. Urwick and Leifchild, the Rev. Mr. Bickersteth, and the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel.

THE NEW PROPOSAL OF THE POST OFFICE AUTHORITIES.

WE are glad to find, while we pen this article, that the loud and general remonstrances of the public against employing additional clerks in the General Post Office on Sundays, have induced the government to postpone their proposed alterations for a fortnight. We would fain hope that this delay, on the part of the government, is with a view to ascertain the real state of Christian feeling in this country, that they may act accordingly. This brief space, well occupied, will be sufficient, we trust, to convince the government that the measure proposed by them ought not to be persevered in, at the expense of outraging the moral and religious feeling of the country, at a time when the Sabbath question is occupying the

deep thoughts of good men, in all religious communities.

Instead of entering upon a new course of Sabbath desecration in the General Post Office, it would be more seemly in the Post Office authorities, and more in accordance with the public feeling of Great Britain at the present moment, to devise measures for doing away entirely with all postal movements throughout the country on God's day. That this will be speedily required, and ultimately effected, we cannot doubt.

Some of our friends, anxiously concerned for the sanctification of the Sabbath, are of opinion that we cannot consistently apply to government on such a subject. This we cannot concede. If it were proposed to appeal to government to aid Christian men in some plan for the direct sanctification of the Sabbath, we should join issue with our friends. But the case is not one of this description. All we ask of government is, that the servants of the Post Office shall have their Sabbath unabridged, that they shall not be called to labour on that day, and that the Post Office authorities shall not patronise measures tending to desecrate the Sabbath, to violate the religious scruples of the best portion of the community, and to introduce a class of agents into the service of the Post Office, who will be lacking in those moral and religious qualities so essential to the protection of the property committed to their care.

With our views, then, on this subject, while we would vigorously oppose the measure now proposed, because it is one of Sabbath desecration, we cannot stop here; neither can we be satisfied until all our postal movements on the day of rest, are brought to a close.

MEMORIAL TO THE QUEEN FROM THE THREE DENOMINATIONS.

Oct. 9th, a meeting of the General Body of Dissenting Ministers residing in and near the cities of London and Westminster was held, at which the following memorial to the sovereign was unanimously adopted:

To the Queen's most Gracious Majesty.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY. "We, your Majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects, constituting the General Body of Dissenting Ministers of the Three Denominations residing in and about the cities of London and Westminster, approach your Majesty with renewed assurances of our unfeigned attachment and devotedness.

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Deeply interested in the moral and religious welfare of this great metropolis, and in some measure alive, as we ought to be, to the changes of various kinds by which it

may be affected, we have been constrained to view with the gravest anxiety and apprehension the order issued by your Majesty's Postmaster-General, providing for the transmission of letters through the General Post Office on the sabbath day.

"We feel the most confident assurance that it is your Majesty's wish that every agent of your government should have the fullest possible enjoyment of the hallowed day of rest, for the sake both of its temporal and its spiritual benefits.

"We respectfully delare to your Majesty our belief, however, that the change now contemplated will, without any public necessity or other sufficient cause, injuriously abridge the sabbath to a large proportion of the Post Office officials, depriving them to a great extent of its temporal advantages as a day of rest, and to a still greater extent disqualifying them for the fulfilment of its religious duties.

"We can assure your Majesty that this matter very nearly concerns us. There are few of our congregations in which servants of the Post Office, of higher or lower grade, are not to be found; and we have already witnessed with pain the grief and consternation which the order of the Postmaster-General has occasioned, while we await with inexpressible apprehension the afflictive consequences which the execution of it cannot fail to produce.

"Nor is the interest of the public in this measure less than our own. In no department of the government is there so large an amount of private property placed continually at the mercy of the public servants, nor in any one does actual demoralisation appear to have made such painful ravages; yet nothing less than a fearful aggravation of this mischief can result from a measure calculated to repel from your Majesty's service in this department every religious and conscientious

man.

"Our humble and dutiful suit to your Majesty, therefore, is, that you will be graciously pleased to take the premises into your royal consideration, and to issue such commands therein as may lead to the abandonment of the arrangements which have been announced.

"That Almighty God may spare your Majesty and your royal Consort many years, and endow your Majesty and your family with his richest blessings, is our fervent prayer.

"Signed on behalf of the whole body, and by its direction,

"ROBERT FERGUSON, LL.D., Chairman. "WILLIAM GROSER, Secretary."

THE REV. HENRY TOWNLEY.

THIS devoted and much-beloved servant of Christ has seen it his duty to resign his pastoral charge, at Bishopsgate Chapel, London, where his labours have been blessed in various ways, not only in rearing that excellent place of worship, but also, in leading many souls to Christ, and building up "the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made him overseer." We sincerely believe that he was much more useful in his sphere than his own modesty ever suffered him to think. He has retired from his post amidst the esteem and regret of his church and congregation, who have transmitted the following memorial to him, breathing the spirit of entire confidence and love. We are happy to think that he will be succeeded in his charge by the Rev. J. C. Gallaway, who has been united with him, for some time past, in the pastorate of the church. May a large measure of Divine influence rest upon the mind, and heart, and labours of our beloved brother!-EDITOR.

66 TO THE REV. H. TOWNLEY.

"REV. AND DEAR SIR,-As the time has arrived, under the guidance of Divine Providence, when your pastoral relation to us has ceased, we feel that we cannot allow this deeply-affecting event to take place without presenting to you some expression of those sentiments and feelings which your past ministry among us, and your recent resignation, have awakened.

"The tie that has hitherto held us together as pastor and flock has been of no ordinary character. It has not been a union of form, much less of compulsion or bare necessity. It has been a fellowship of love. Of your earnest and disinterested devotedness to our spiritual well-being, and the advancement of religion in this locality, during the twenty-two years that you have sustained the pastoral relationship, the evidences are too numerous to admit of any adequate specification. At the same time, we cannot forbear to allude to the remarkable success which attended your early labours at White's-row. You ventured upon that ministerial sphere at a time when it was placed in circumstances of the greatest depression. But by your earnest and untiring efforts, attended with the blessing of Almighty God, you succeeded in raising it to a state of great prosperity. Nor can we avoid alluding to your strenuous personal exertions, and to your own munificent contributions in connexion with the erection of Bishopsgate Chapel,-a building which we shall ever regard as a monument of your zeal and disinterestedness in the cause of Christ. By your unwavering adherence to the great essential doctrines of the gospel-by your simple and affectionate mode of proclaiming them-by

your prudent counsels, your constant liberality, and your tender sympathy, you have secured a place in our affections which no change of circumstances, or no length of time, will ever efface, or, we trust, diminish.

"We honour your well-known devotedness to the great cause of Christian Missions; we greatly value your enlightened and liberal efforts in extending the cause of general education; we admire your stanch adherence to the great principles of our venerable Nonconformity; we rejoice in your attachment to the great cause of enlightened Catholicity, and our earnest hope and prayer are, that, in all our future proceedings as a Church, we shall prove ourselves duly mindful of the holy and noble example which, by the grace of God you have been enabled thus to present.

"In resigning a pastoral connexion of such a character and of such duration, we feel assured that you have been actuated by the same principles of disinterestedness and submission to the will of God which have pervaded that ministry throughout. The close of this fellowship is, therefore, in keeping with its commencement and its continuance. It does not diminish our esteem and love for you, however keenly it touches our hearts. We are assured that you have not taken this step without fervent prayer for the Divine guidance, and without satisfactory evidence to your own mind that the conclusion to which you have arrived is right. Bowing to this conviction on your part, and respecting your own special request, we forbear from any further attempt to induce you to perpetuate your stated labours amongst us.

"It will ill become us thus to ratify the close of this harmonious and successful fellowship, without craving at your hands, as you have so modestly and so characteristically done at ours, the forgiveness of all our deficiencies and imperfections as your flock. We do acknowledge that we have not been worthy of your devotedness to our welfare, and we ask you to wipe away from your recollection all those instances in which we have failed to discharge the duties of an earnest and untiring co-operation.

Happily the cessation of the pastoral relationship is not the cessation of our Christian intercourse. Though parting in one capacity we are not parting in the other. Many times yet, on earth, we trust it will be our privilege to witness your presence amongst us, and to exchange our Christian sympathies. Your visits will always be numbered among our special privileges. In the untrodden path before us we may at times be placed in circumstances in which we may unitedly crave your counsel. That counsel, we are assured, you will not withhold. Nor will you refuse, we trust, again and again to proclaim to us the unsearchable riches of Christ. Your