1 lost in the wide and parched sand- T been during the year forty-six millions. Eight hundred and twenty-seven ap 1 before; it is altogether wasted and plicants had received grants of tracts to the value of £1,635, and nearly as many had received grants of tracts at half the reduced rates. The total number of publications thus granted had been upwards of six millions. The circulation of the Society's publications in France had been upwards of a million; and, indeed, they had everywhere accompanied the Bible Society's distribution of the Word of God. The religious tract or volume had followed the Book throughout Belgium and Germany, and other European countries; through India, China, Australia, Africa. With a simple fidelity to truth, and never in a solitary instance compromising the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, the Society, through its publications, had been aiming to diffuse light, to give life, and to impart power to sinful and suffering men. The Chairman of the Meeting, Sir Francis Crossley, truly said that there was no doubt the distribution of tracts greatly helped the preaching of the Gospel. On the day of the meeting he had received a letter from a person at Halifax, who was accustomed to distribute tracts in public-houses and other places, and who had in this way circulated no less than 200,000; and who moreover had some very interesting cases to relate of the manner in which they had been greatly blessed. Mr. Martin, of Westminster, in expressing his bond of attachment to the Society, simply declared what in the eyes of most people constitutes its best claim to continued support, its fidelity to the Gospel. Some men thoughts there was no distinct Gospel, but he could not read the first chapter of the Next in importance to the circulation of the Word of God must rank the spread of a Christian and Evangelical literature, and the RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY has long enjoyed the distinguished honour of issuing valuable books and publications that accord strictly with the Word of God, and of issuing only such. Whether it be a four-page tract or a lengthy volume, a book of biography or travel, its unfailing motto is, and it need not blush to own it in the presence of the most talented literature of the age" I am not ashamed of the Gos pel of Christ." The Tract Society, like the Bible Society, has a connexion with almost every part of the earth, and is spreading the glad tidings of the way of salvation throughout every country. The facts stated by the Secretary at its Annual Meeting in regard to the circulation of the various publications of the Society, when we remember their strictly evangelical character, are worth reflecting upon again and again." The total circulation, including foreign issues, I had J Epistle to the Galatians, without feel ing that the Gospel was there so distinctly and so frigidly defined that theres could be no mistake about it. The Society had always been aiming to propagate and spread this clearly defined Gospel, and if there was an inch of printed paper with the hint of another: Gospel "upon it, it was only because it had escaped the eagle eye of the men who conducted the Society's work. It struck him too, that there was a considerable adaptation in the operations of the Society to the times. He was not ashamed to confess that he had not always thought this, but he did think so now, for they had published several works which were just adapted to the wants of the day. The work of the Society was done earnestly but quiet ly; in some cases they often got more talk than work, but here they got more work than talk of boiul sez ACRO 40) 98T III. Pasi i guso!? sitt The living voice, however, is needed las well as the written word, in the economy of means by which those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, both at home and abroad, are brought to recognise the message of mercy of God in Christ. The work, therefore, of the LONDON CITY MIS 111 thousands of readers take in the descriptions of crime and wretchedness, with which men of no mean literary power season their serial stories and occasional papers. The simple unostentatious men who spend the best part of th their time in streets and lanes of the city," are doing a far nobler work than the most brilliant story-teller. They are trying to remedy, and they have a remedy for evils that are surely too awful for the Toaste artist to indulge in a glittering waste of words about. It has been computed that during the past year seven per sons would have died in London every day, without the instructions and consolations of the Gospel, had it not been for the agents of the London City Mission. They have paid 276,830 visits to the sick and dying, and altogether have maintained a daily visitation of about six thousand persons. Their distribution of religious tracts has exceeded the whole population of the metropolis, being at the rate of 9,000 daily. The gross total attendants at their meetings, during the past year, exceeded considerably the number of persons attending the churches and chapels of London on one Lord's-day. Through the efforts of the Society many poor children had been sent to school, many drunkards had been reclaimed, many shops closed on the Lord's-day, and many families induced to commence family worship. The Society, could therefore look back with grateful pleasure upon a year of hearty and successful work, not only among the very poor, but among night and day cabmen and omnibus men; among loiterers about the docks; among gipsies and gasmen; among hundreds of people who, apart from the City 66 די Missionaries, might have truly said, No man careth for grein for my soul." But the work which is being done in London by these excellent labourers, has also its counterpart in the work done in benighted villages by the agents of the HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. The field occupied by this Society includes 710 towns, villages, and hamlets, situate in 37 counties of England and Wales, and it has now 164 mission and evangelistic stations. In the evangelistic depart ment of work done there is much that is encouraging: sixty-two evangelists have been constantly engaged among 30,000 families, and the reports from their local superintendents are D ། out exception of the most satisfactory character. The Chamberlain of London, in the course of his speech at the Annual Meeting of the Society, showed only too clearly that its operations could ill be spared. He had formerly spent twenty years of his life in London, and since, twenty years in the country; but he was compelled to say that there e was more darkness, ignorance, degradation, and heathenism in their rural districts, so far as he had seen, than existed in London and the larger towns; there being many agencies at work in the latter which were not to be found in the villages. Country districts had been to a large extent left for three centuries to the evangelistic teaching, such as it was, of the Establishment. There was a village a few miles from his own house, where a Christian brother, to test the enlightenment of the people, went to a row of cottages, four in number, determined to put one question only, and that a vital one, 1 1 Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was ?? In three of the cottages he P } Before alluding to the work of the Church of Christ in heathen lands, a word must be given to the SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, an institution whose work is becoming more and more extensively useful in other lands as wellas in our own. The total number of London scholars reported to have joined the Church during the past year was 1,554, being one in 102 of the o scholars in the several schools. The number of accessions to the Church, reported by the country? unions, was 5,167, making a total of 6,721; facts which conveyed great encouragement to all faithful workers in the Sabbath school cause, and should lead teachers not only to pray for, but also to expect, great things in reward for their efforts. It was cheering to hear, at the Annual Meeting, of this emphatically English institution taking root in other countries. In France there T e are at this moment more than 5,000 Sunday scholars; in Holland, in Switzerland, and in Italy, Sundayschools have been introduced; and who can tell but that the blessing they have already been to our own land, they may also prove to every land in which they are established. Most certainly first resolution 'I the which the meeting was asked to adopt was not a matter of form. We did hear, with feelings of pleasure and thankfulness, the success which had attended the efforts of the Committee to assist in extending and improving the Sunday-school system in The meeting of the LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY was a noble manifestation of what was being done in Christ's name among heathen lands. At the p present time the number of missionaries connected with this great Society, which has now celebrated its seventy-second anniversary, is one hundred and eighty-five. Of these, 27 are connected with the mission in Polynesia, 23 are stationed in the West Indies, 41 in South Africa, 25 in China, 62 in India, and 12 in Madagascar. In the course of a few months 9 additional missionaries will proceed to India, 2 to China, and 1 to South Africa. The Report took a survey of the state and progress of the missions in every part of the field occupied by the Society's agents. It further stated, that the manifest results of the efforts in China were sufficient to call forth admiring gratitude; while the direct results in India would bear comparison with the direct results arising from Christian efforts of a similar kind in other lands and other ages, but to the more thoughtful the indirect results would appear even more remarkable. As to Madagascar, Christianity appeared to have made to have made more encouraging progress among the people during the past year, than during any other equal period since the resumption of the mission. It was very pleasing at the meeting to hear a hearty appreciation of Dr. Tidman's services as Foreign Secretary, from the noble Earl in the chair, and to observe the enthusiastic manner in which his name was received by the audience. It was simply a just tribute to him after long years of labour and anxiety, and of no ordinary success. The new Secretaries also received a very warm welcome, and both by the public press as well as by its subscribers and friends, the Society's Annual Meeting was counted one of the most important and popular of the It was most appropriate that amid the gatherings of those engaged in the Lord's service, the SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE SOCIETY should also hold its meeting. The Society, as the Chairman remarked, was the useful handmaid of all other religious and philanthropic societies. It sought to assist all the Christian efforts that were being put forth for the welfare of mankind and the extension of Christ's kingdom. All the great efforts that were being made amongst various Christian communities required funds in order that the good aimed at might be secured. True indeed. The incomes of the various Societies do not show quite so favourably this year. The Wesleyan Missionary Society, it is true, has increased £5,000, but the legacies especially seem on all hands to be decreasing. The Bible Society reports a decrease of no less than £23,470 from this source of revenue, and the City Mission £5,000 from the same. Surely what is needed is that the Divine principle Ts bio, 2 CT onierz 191f) 9981 xes dana) to dinsh ult toit am THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST AND HOW FREEDOM CONSERVES 7unt 976.I to bol) & wod bod TRUTHp adt un !Is not bob iftat rot ig total outry the Reb. Newman Hall, F. BOUND by no declaration of assent to any denomiuntional standard, there will be found throughout our Churches a substantial unity of doctrine, to be sought for in vain in certain communities where the compulsory use of the same formularies is associated with the greatest diversity of religious opinion. Is this doctrinal unity accidental to Congregationalism or its legitimate result? Our system favours freedom-' does it also conserve truth? A freedom that robbed us of the Gospel would lose all claims to our love; but freedom is doubly endeared, when, besides its intrinsic worth, it guards that invaluable treasure. I *། The fundamental doctrine of Chris-' tianity, is the Sacrifice of Christ as a substitution for the punishment of the guilty. A special assertion of this do doctrine seems justified, and almost demanded on this occasion, by the circumstances of our day. I propose to show how it is assailed, and how our system tends to its conservation. "I P 3 Although many of us miglit object to some of the terms and arguments by which this truth has been explained and defended, and although we might be unable to unite in any precise verbal definition, yet there is amongst us a substantial and most devout agreement in the interpretation we put on such statements as the following:He was wounded for our transgressions. Hẻ was bruised for Jour iniquities the such 66 66 .921192 lt to fi chastisement of our peace Top 15 102 sit m him, and with his stripes we are was upon healed." "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." The Son of Man came to give his life a ransom for + many." In we have redempdom tion through his blood." He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world." The fact of the atonement, as taught in these and other passages, as Prophets, affirmed by our Lord typified in the law, foretold by the Lord and His Apostles, we regard as so fundamental, that to remove it would be the destruction of Christianity itself. Yet, in some quarters of professed orthodoxy it is so diluted, disguised, explained away, as to lose all its special character and force. Not alone by some of the great mast ters of theological speculation, whose language lacks the clearness that might make it dangerous, but by others whose i speech and pen arrest and charm all classes, this defective representation of the work of Christ has been made. By way of illustration I will refer to a volume of sermons which, by freshness. of thought, vigour of style, beauty of sentiment and the high character of the preacher, have secured an almost unprecedented circulation. I turn to aut discourse on the sacrifice of Christ, the I object of which is to show how "One: died for all." Two arguments are adduced. The first is that Christ was a victim to the sins of all, His murder DURSE ZEń otz fusarh I * In his Inaugural Address at the Annual Assembly of the Congregational Union, May 8, 1866. 2017 |