number of shares, and great profits. All this was to work a great invention. Everything was great about it; but what it was was a great secret; indeed, it was so profound a secret that until all the money was paid in nobody was to know what it was. Now that is the Conservative policy at this moment. They have a policy which they offer for the coming election, but it is a profound secret. When you have all given your votes and returned a Conservative majority perhaps they will tell you what it is.-John Bright. The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. From the time that the mother binds the child's head, till the moment that some kind assistant wipes the death-damp from the brow of the dying, we cannot exist without mutual help. All, therefore, that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-mortals; no one who holds the power of granting can refuse without guilt.— Sir Walter Scott. We know not how our Lord God is carrying on His building. Here we see only the scaffolding, with its beams and boards. But in that life we shall see God's building and house; and then we shall wonder, and shall indeed rejoice that we have endured temptation. A real Christian loves close, pointed, searching preaching, and seeks not the ministry of those who speak enticing words of man's wisdom. 66 Quiet is not idleness. Study to be quiet and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands." Quiet is not indifference. Quiet is not sloth. Quiet is the work of a soul trusting in God-in no hurry while all eternity is before it, and in no doubt since God Almighty rules the universe. He would read a letter published in one of those papers-not a squib, but a letter written by the vicar of a parish in one of the great colliery districts :-" Sir,-May I appeal through your columns to our brethren in the faith who are blessed with catholic privileges to help a very poor mission amongst the collieries, by sending us any of the following necessaries for our new church? We want Eucharistic vestments, albs, stoles, and maniples, altar furniture (except antependia), altar linen, a sacring bell, processional crucifix and candlesticks, acolytes' scarlet cassocks and zuchettos, a cope, thurible and boat, sanctuary lamps, a confessional. Any of the above mentioned articles will be very thankfully received by A. H. MATTHEWS, Rector. Dudley Station, near Newcastle-on-Tyne." He asked whether that was not a disgrace to England? These are the men who sneer at those who go forth with the simple Gospel message, which the Apostle Paul had declared to be the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.-Rev. J. Thain Davidson. CHURCH NEWS OF THE MONTH. "MR. BRIGHT has spoken," says the English Independent, “ and the Liberal party is reunited." But is not this exultation a little premature? Are we quite safe in hallooing so long before we are out of the wood? We do not, indeed, undervalue the weight of the words employed by Mr. Bright. We hail them with satisfaction and gratitude. But Mr. Bright-influential as is his position—is not the prime minister, is not the government, is not even the minister of education. And so long as Mr. Forster is at the head of the Education Department, and so long as that department is occupied by gentlemen who are devoted to the spread of sectarianism, we prefer to wait, and not to believe till we see. The very latest disclosures of the department reveal the right honourable gentleman and his staff engaged in their accustomed exercises of cantering over religious difficulties and Christian consciences. Still, we do not despond. The right will win. The people who, under professed love for national education, are airing their own sectarian interests, will go to the wall; and national education—at last freed from all fetters and all feuds will spread far and wide, pure and free as the air we breathe, the birthright of every child in the land. But if Mr. Forster yields anything to our just demands, it will not be by virtue of their mere justice. It will be because the government is made to believe that there is a fixed and irreversible resolution on the part of true Liberals that, unless concessions are made, the days of the Liberal party and of Liberal government are numbered. "Cabinet secrets," said Mr. Bright, playfully," are not made till November;" those secrets will not be allowed to transpire for some time to come; the exact facts will not be known till Parliament meets. Therefore we say to every Nonconformist committee, to every Nonconformist elector, and to every Englishman who, as Mr. Bright remarks, "is more concerned for education than for sect," and desires "to create harmony where now only discord prevails,”—we say, believe no one, believe nothing, but in the equity of your demands, in your own strong resolutions, and in Him who will defend the right. Rest if you will-but rest on your arms, at your guns. The Duke of Argyle recently mentioned, by way of showing how strong the Scottish Establishment is, that it had raised £500,000 for the Endowment Scheme since 1853. It is a striking circumstance that the Free Church has during the same period raised, without beat of drum, over £1,000,000 for church building, and that it is the Voluntary Free Church which is actually providing religious ordinances for the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. 66 1 Mr. Spurgeon has lately remarked that to compel him “to support the present Popish Church of England is an act of tyranny." 'He rejoiced," he said, "that during the twenty years of his ministry nobody had had a table, stool, or candlestick taken away for churchrates towards washing his surplice, nor had he been supported by rates levied on any persons against their will. All that had been received had been the proceeds of pure willinghood." For the erection of the Tabernacle, £30,000; Almshouses and Schools, £6000; Orphanage, freehold, £20,000; Pastors' College (when completed), £12,000; Fund for advancing Loans without interest to chapels in debt, £4500; Lands belonging to the Orphanage, £27,000; Property for endowment of Almshouses, £3150; total, £102,650. The Colportage Society connected with the Metropolitan Tabernacle now employs nineteen agents. "This last," says Mr. Spurgeon, “is growth; but if good people knew the worth of the agency, they would soon increase the number to ninety or more. No better work is done under heaven." A Liverpool clergyman-the Rev. W. R. Trench-has recently made application to the School Board for permission to give religious instruction in a Board School at his own cost. His proposals are thus stated -1. Many children of Protestant parents resident in this district attend your schools in Love-lane, and by my advice and wish. 2. It is my desire to give to all children under my care more religious teaching than can be accomplished by means of Sundayschools only, which, moreover, many children are unwilling to attend owing to poor clothes. 3. I believe that many parents who are now unwilling to send their children to your school would be induced to do so if they knew that they were there daily receiving religious instruction from the clergyman of the parish. 4. My application, therefore, is, that I may be permitted to pay a rent to your Board for the use of some part of your school-buildings during a portion of each day— say three-quarters of an hour before the commencement of morning school-for the purpose of giving religious instruction to those children of Protestant parents who are in attendance at the school, and are willing to receive it. We hope the request will in due time be favourably considered. "It is not unlikely," says the Nonconformist, that the public may eventually sanction such a scheme as Mr. Trench's. It certainly offers a practical solution of the religious difficulty, and in a manner that has more than once been approved. It takes the religious instruction out of the hands of Boards—at least, that would be its effect and leaves it to denominational zeal. But before we decide in its favour, we have to ask what would be its probable operation? In all small country parishes, at least, would not every Board School become a Church of England school?” The site selected for the edifice which is about to be built for the Rev. David Thomas, D.D., by the congregation now worshipping in Stockwell Chapel, is at the junction of Jeffrey's-road with Claphamroad. The value of the plot of land is estimated at £3000; but, through the liberality of the proprietor, who is a member of Dr. Thomas's Church, it has been purchased for little more than half that amount. The congregation and friends of the Rev. J. Kelly, of Liverpool, have recently presented him with an address, and a purse containing a cheque for £2700. The amount has been contributed by nearly three hundred individuals, in sums varying from a shilling to one hundred guineas. The Rev. Henry Wonnacott, late of Luton, has become the pastor of Albion Church, Hull; the Rev. W. Mottram, of Highworth, of the Church at Melksham; and the Rev. S. Haymes, late of Spilsby, of Boston-road Chapel, Brentford. The Title-age and Contents of the CHRISTIAN'S PENNY MAGAZINE can be obtained of Messrs. J. Snow and Co., 2, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, London. Price One Halfpenny. |