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the better sort of Puseyites, and mens of high intellect, this only suggests that mor bid conscientiousness in superstition may, on Church matters, convert high ability into Jesuitical cunning against the truth. The Ministry, however, is pledged to introduce the Jews into Parliament; some of its members denounce war on the Ecclesias+ tical Courts, and on Church rates levied on Dissenters to support the worship of the Church; the repairs to be provided for by ousting worthless Deans and Chapters. We think that, regarding the whole as national property, the part of the property now spent in fattening worthless sinecurists, had better be employed in keeping othe national buildings in repair. To gain this would be a point; though all who use the national buildings ought gladly to repair them at their own cost. Still in sound theory, until Church property can be secularized for the relief and good of the whole community, it is better to make the pecuniary part of it maintain the part liable to dilapidation at its full value, than to waste the money on the most useless (except for mischief) of Church dignitaries.

Church Association, held at the Educa tional Institution, Aldersgate Street, London, on Tuesday night, Jan. 18th, an address was delivered by John Kingsley, Esq., on the various public events occurring in the past year, which have more or less strikingly illustrated the unsound condition of the Church of England, and the neces sity for separating it from the State, as the only means of working a reformation. The institution of Mr. Bennett to the vicarage of Frome, notwithstanding his having been driven out of another diocese for alleged Popish practices, and in spite of the protestations of the parishioners, was largely dwelt upon, as was also the effort of the Tractarian party to obtain a revival of convocation, and the enjoyment of power and privileges which no State-endowed and law-created Church ought to possess. The exposure of sinecurism in the ecclesiastical courts the treatment of Mr. Whis ton by the dean and chapter of Rochesterthe debate on Maynooth, and the trickery of the Derby government on the occasionand the activities of the Bishop of Exeter,

mented upon. One of the subsequent speakers, Mr. Carvell Williams, pointed to the fact, that notwithstanding the determination expressed during the anti-papal agitation to put down Puseyism, Mr. Denison, one of its leaders, had been made an archdeacon-that the founder of the sect, Dr. Pusey, had publicly challenged the Master of the Rolls to make in the Ecclesiastical Courts the charge of treachery and heresy which were brought against his party out of doors and the Archbishop of Canter bury, when appealed to to repress the prac tice of auricular confession, declared that he had not the power, but that we must trust to public opinion for checking such proceedings! He ventured to predict that a twelvemonth hence nearly all the evils which had been pointed out would remain uncorrected, and another batch of events of a similar character would serve as powerful arguments in favour of the change which the Association advocated. Ebenezer Clarke, Esq., presided, and William Edwards, Esq., H. R. Ellington, Esq., and Thomas Thompson, Esq., also addressed the meeting.bal arbbe od 1.00monbs oldanigs SAINTHILL, DEVONSHIRE. 200

The Rev. Thomas Pulsford has received a cordial and unanimous invitation from the Baptist church at Sainthill, Kentisbere, Devonshire, to become their pastor; this invitation Mr. Pulsford has responded to, and commenced his stated labours at Sainthill, on Lord's day, January 2nd, 1853. This union is the more interesting, inasmuch as Mr. Pulsford frequently preached here when he was about eighteen years old; and the pulpit at Sainthill was the first he preached in, about thirty-nine years since. Hoos w ods mod271650 Hosage To

The Rev. T. S. Baker, late of Deal, has accepted a cordial and unanimous invitation

to the pastoral charge of the Baptist church assembling at Romney Street, Westminster. Obituary.

MR. ROBERT WILCOCK, WAINSGATE.

Robert Wilcock was born at Lower Crimsworth, in Wadsworth, Yorkshire, Oct. 17th, 1790. After a short but ardent career of youthful folly, "it pleased God to reveal his Son in him;" and after giving evidence of a change of heart, he was baptized and united with the church at Wainsgate, May 30th, 1813, of which he continued a devoted and useful member until his death. In 1818, he was chosen to the office of deacon, which he held for nearly thirty years, discharging with acceptance its onerous duties, when, through some unpleasant circumstances, he was induced to resign. About nine years ago, at the urgent request of several christian brethren, he began to preach; and during that time he has filled, with considerable acceptance and success, the destitute pulpits of many neighbouring churches: Cullingworth and Horkingstone he supplied regularly, at stated intervals, for six or seven years.

Our brother's removal was sudden. The last Sabbath he spent on earth he walked three miles, intending to preach at Naze Bottom; but, overcome by disease, he returned home to die. His affliction was borne with christian resignation; and his death-bed scene one of holy triumph. To many christian friends he spoke of his strong confidence and joyous prospects; and shortly after midnight, December 11th, 1852, his redeemed spirit took its flight, we believe, to be for ever with the Lord. Thus died, as he had lived, this cheerful and devoted servant of God, at the age of sixty-two years. He was a cheerful christian, and his views of divine truth, though not extensive, were clear and evangelical. His love to the people and cause of Christ gained for him the esteem of a large circle of friends connected with neighbouring Baptist churches, who sincerely mourn his removal. According to our brother's request, a funeral sermon was preached for him, from Psalm xxvi. 8, by the Rev. J. Smith, formerly pastor at Wainsgate, now of Bacup. The congregation was overflowing, and the discourse solemn and appropriate..

Just twenty-three days after our brother's death, his daughter, Sarah Wilcock, fell asleep in Jesus, at the early age of twentyfive years. For seven years she had been united with the church at Wainsgate, and gave promise of usefulness in the Sunday school, to which she was much attached.

OLD EDWARD.

High authority says, "Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost,' and throughout every department of his works the Almighty himself invariably acts on this economical plan. But strange to say, men are sadly neglectful and inattentive. If a great man, such as the Duke of Wellington, is reviewed, everything that can be said of him, from the shoe latchet up, is

industriously published from the leading pulpits of our land: of course for the spiritual edification of the hearers. While too frequently the telling lives of godly but obscure members of our churches, that might much edify and encourage others,. are buried in their graves, and quietly allowed to sleep there till the morning of the resurrection.

Three weeks ago our church was called to mourn the removal of just such a person. Old Edward was not by any means an extraordinary man. There was nothing in him either of position, early education, or mental power, much different from the mass around.

He had a small pension that just raised him above want, but left him quite in humble circumstances. His early years had been spent at sea, and the rest of his active life among the carpenters at the Royal Dock Yard, Woolwich. So that his habits of thought and powers of speech were just those of the ordinary working man, a good deal steeped now and then in strong salt water.

But when I said he was just what any of our members might be, I should have added, yet I fear what very many of them are not. Old Edward was a sort of model man. No one feature was very prominent, yet was there such a fine blending together of the whole as to make him a real blessing to our society. A fault-finding or factious word never crossed his lips during his long connection with us. He was peace itself. A deeply devotional spirit gave simplicity and beauty to the other qualities of his mind. And he was ever ready to do what he could for the comfort of his minister, and the prosperity of the church.

He was not meant for a leader in any de partment, and, what was far better, he never attempted it. His simple aim was to fill the place for which God had fitted him, and help on the cause as God enabled him. When well, he was never absent from chapel, and usually in time to have a few moments mental prayer before the service began.

Though at the risk of provoking a smile, I must add, for many need to be reminded of it, that old Edward felt it his cnty to help the cause with his hammer and his saw, as well as with his prayers and pence. He erected the platform for our public meetings, jobbed about the vestries, chapel yard, or any other way, and at our social meetings always superintended the waterboiling department. And thus, if he could not give money, saved money, by giving money's worth.

Our aged brother has now left us for a better world. His end was rather sudden and unexpected, but peaceful and resigned,

Peace be to his precious dust. Let his name long survive, and his memorial be largely fragrant and fruitful among us in days and years yet to come. So that of him, as of another ancient believer, it may truly be said," He being dead yet speaketh." North Shields.

THE CHURCH.

"Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."-Eph.ii.20.

MARCH, 1853..

ALONE WITH GOD.

BY DR. F. A. G. THOLUCK.*

"Jesus went up into a mountain apart to pray."-Matt. xiv. 23.

"He withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed."-Luke v. 16.

"If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup him, and he with me."-Rev. iii. 20.

with

It is frequently recorded of our Saviour, as in the preceding passages, that he retired into a solitary place to be alone with God. Now, if He who hath said, "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, WHO IS IN HEAVEN," "-if He deemed it advisable to leave for a time all creatures behind, in order to be alone with God and his own thoughts, how much more salutary must such seasons of retirement be for me! In the present age, life is ever becoming more full of bustle and excitement; but we find that men are all the less anxious to secure those seasons of retirement which might preserve them from such dissipating and ruinous influences. There is a restlessness which comes over all men, even over the disciples of Jesus, that renders them incapable of receiving the rich influences of light from above; for it is only in the calm, mirror-like waters that the sun can reflect his image. Men live in the ever fleeting present; they have no time to reflect on the past, nor to think of the future; no wonder that even in the present they live not as they ought.

Oh, God, how sacred are those hours to me, which I have spent alone with thee! I have come forth from them purified and invigorated as from a spiritual bath. During the busy engagements of the day, the din of life, with its thousand varied tones, falls on our ears like the roar of a cataract. We cannot hear ourselves, we cannot hear God when he speaks to us. But how totally different do we appear, and all things else, when the holy stillness of night succeeds to the bustle of the day. Then voices in us and around us begin to speak, which till now could find no utterance. But they are voices which sometimes make us sad, and, on that account, men try to escape these hours of solitude. Flee them not, dear friend! Among these utterances there is many a summons to your native land, and such have always a degree of melancholy mingled in their tones. But, merely to escape the pangs of home-sickness, would you try to forget, in a foreign land, that you have another home? Oh, friend, this would be most unwise. For if, at length, you were to reach

*From "Stunden Christlicher Andacht." We propose to furnish our readers with a translation occasionally from these beautiful meditations.

VOL. VII.

D

your native land, you would feel that you were a stranger even there. Then court retirement. For every such season is like the silent night. The sounds of this world are hushed, and monitory voices from another world begin to whisper.

You are

Does your reluctance arise, then, merely from the fear of having yourself as your only companion? Ah, there is something more. afraid that another companion may step forth, one whom you have no desire to see your conscience. But who is this companion whom you fear is it not God? And can you be reconciled to God,-you who are filled with dismay at the idea of meeting him? As yet you only hear his voice, you see him not, and yet you are afraid. How will you feel when you shall behold him, and when his eyes shall meet yours? What the happier would you be could you obtain an entrance into heaven?—in the place where the blessed rejoice, you would tremble.

A man was living in a house, the very mortar of whose walls was beginning to crumble, and the beams to crack. He was completely engrossed in business, so much so, indeed, that when a friend of his wished to speak to him in private, with the view of warning him of his danger, he protested he could not spare the time. You laugh at the fool, but THOU art the fool. Dear friend, believe me, although unaware of it, you are certainly regarding your business as of higher importance to you than you are to yourself. Were it not so, how could you refuse to hear when the voice of your heavenly Friend summons you into privacy, there to make disclosures to you regarding yourself and your earthly abode? Or, you feel that you are ill, although you will scarcely admit it to yourself, and you may shrink from having even a single consultation with your physician; but what will that avail you? It can avail you nothing. Poor blinded man, you will be snatched away in a moment from the midst of the bustle of life; and then you will pass into a solitude, where those voices will assuredly sound, and sound loudly, which now you seek to escape. But mark the difference-here they are the voice of your Friend, there they will be the voice of your Judge.

And consider, I entreat thee, oh, soul, what a high honour you are despising, that you may pursue a most paltry pleasure. You are running about in every direction to visit men, while your Saviour is left standing at the door to knock, and knock in vain. Oh, if you had ever experienced how kindly and condescendingly he deals with our souls on such occasions, you could not be so anxious to escape these inestimable visits. True, he has many a charge to lay before us; but then he does it with so much gentleness and love, that we can only weep silent tears of shame and confession. And then, on the other hand, he has so many blissful things to tell us about our future home and our native land, and so many "thoughts of peace" which he cherishes towards us now, and which he intends to perform at a future time, that our tears are wiped away, our hearts thrill with the most pleasurable emotions. But you imagine he never comes except to punish or condemn. You do not know that he likewise comes to pardon and to save; and that every time our sins are thus blotted out, there takes place in the hidden recesses of the soul such a jubilee, as the very angels in heaven look down upon with interest and delight.

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"Oh, what a pure, perpetual feast,

When Christ, no more unknown,
Speaks into peace our ruffled breast,
And names us for his own.

"Then tears gush from the sinner's heart,

To Him the sinner's friend;

As oft o'er our ungrateful part,

His sorrowing tears descend.

"And, oh, what sweet uncloying bliss,

Now that He smiles on us;
No other wish have we but this:

Oh, that 't were always thus !"

Yes, this is just what he promised when he declared, "Whoever shall hear my voice, and shall open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

Ye who have never experienced such seasons as these can form no conception of the feelings that pervade the soul when it returns to the world after such a realization of his presence. As the face of Moses shone when he returned from the presence of the Lord, so it is with every christian who has supped in solitude with his Lord. With a heart reconciled to God he goes forth into the world, and looks upon the world in the light of that reconciliation. Now he stretches forth a friendly hand to every erring brother, and heaps coals of fire on the heads of all his enemies. Now every duty seems a precious privilege; and from every thunder-cloud of adversity he sees the hand of a Father stretched forth to shelter his child before the storm bursts forth. God is no longer a God afar off,-a God whose habitation is beyond the moon and stars. He is now the Omnipresent, who covers with the shadow of his mantle the heavens and

the earth.

"Since I have known the Lord aright,
I feast with him by day and night.'

TWENTY ADDITIONAL MISSIONARIES FOR INDIA.

BY EDWARD BEAN UNDERHILL, ESQ.

A christian traveler from Calcutta to Delhi, would probably take the line of the Ganges, in order to reach that most distant station of the Baptist Missionary Society. As he would be desirous of ascertaining to how great an extent the gospel of his Lord was made known on his chosen route, he would enquire diligently, as his boat passed on through the wide plain of Bengal, the jungles of Behar, and the more hilly country of the North West, where the messengers of the cross could be found, and for the success that God had graciously vouchsafed to their endeavours.

Passing Serampore, famed for its translations of the Scriptures and the good and great men who there laid the foundations of that work now bearing rich and ripe fruit unto God, the pilgrim would first stop at Moorshedabad, some one hundred and eighteen miles from Calcutta. There he would find two missionaries of the London Missionary Society, with a small community of christian natives, the only light in a dark idolatrous mass of upwards of a million of heathen. He would next arrive at Monghir, where two brethren of our own Society labour with zeal and success, among eight hundred thousand people. Loosing from his anchorage, the next station would be Patna. One Baptist missionary would be all, to preach the word in this great city. One hundred and twenty miles further would bring him to Benares, with no oratory by the way where he might land to offer prayer to the true and living God. In this holy city, thousands of temples would meet his gaze, dedicated to the false deities of Hindostan, sprinkled along the banks of the river, or lifting up their cupolas and minarets in picturesque confusion above the crowded mud-built habitations of the people. He would find the streets thronged with thousands of Brahmins, and hundreds of thousands of their deluded votaries, hastening to bathe in the saving waters of the Ganges, or to worship in the temples of their gods. Yet even here he

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