In conclusion, they beg to be permitted to remark, that to make a provision for the future contingencies of life is a moral duty, prompted alike by the religion of Christ and by common sense. Yes; and it is productive not only of temporal benefit, but of important moral results, which have been powerfully set forth in the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, especially the social and kindly feeling it engenders. Yet it is a fact, that the ministers and members of the church of Christ have been far behind the men of the world in availing themselves of these advantages. Whatever forms the spirit of independence, and teaches men to help themselves instead of depending on the casual bounty of others, must be as beneficial to the cause of God as to their families. As innocence is better than pardon, so independence is better than charity. And, till all our members feel this, we shall never stand before the world politically as we ought; nor will our religious and educational institutions extensively thrive.

The time seems come that we must in some measure regard the temporal as well as the spiritual interests of our people. The subject will be and is forced upon us. The clergy have obtained great power over the poorer classes, not merely by parish gifts at festivals, but by clubs of various kinds; some of which are most admirable, and great blessings in the parishes

where instituted. A liberality of feeling, and a desire to improve the social and moral condition of all the inhabitants of a parish, without distinction of religious sentiment, has characterized some few societies which the clergy have instituted. But too frequently, in rural districts, the clubs have been weapons of persecution. Attendance at church, or no benefits from the club, has been the implied, and, in many instances, the expressed law. Conscientious persons could not yield, and have been bitter sufferers through the tyranny exercised, and others have yielded for the sake of temporal benefits so temptingly presented. Let us teach our people to help themselves, that they may smile at poverty, threatened by a priest, as the infliction for disobedience to his unrighteous commands.

Convinced of the truth and importance of these statements, the committee beseech their brethren, by all the social benefits such societies bring-by all the temporal advantages they bestow-by the spirit of independence they create -by increased contributions to all our institutions which we may expect-by the preservation from sufferings incident to poverty they give-by the mitigation of sorrows in a dying hour, which they never fail to impart, and by the blessing which will return on their own heads to aid such societies with their advice, their assistance, and their prayers.

THE signal service rendered to the cause of religion in England by the invaluable Notes of Albert Barnes on the Sacred Scriptures, has much endeared his honoured name to multitudes of all classes of believers, and all sections of the church of Christ. It cannot, therefore, be uninteresting to those multitudes to know something of the origin, history, and labours of their benefactor-points on which, through the spontaneous kindness of our valued friend, Thomas Rees, of Llanelly, we are enabled to lay before the British public, in the celebrated Commentator's own language. Mr. Rees having generously offered us the letter of Mr. Barnes, we thankfully accepted the offer, which was followed by its immediate transmission, together with this note, which will explain the origin of the autobiographical communication.

Llanelly, December 2, 1845. REV. SIR,-I hereby forward you the letter of the Rev. A. Barnes, which contains a short account of his life. I have prefixed its contents to my translation of the first volume of his Notes on the Gospels. It is at your service for insertion in the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, in the shape you may think proper. If I could write

English in a style worthy of your widely-circulated periodical, I would have shaped it into a biographical sketch, to save you the trouble of re-writing it.

The success of the Welsh translation of the Notes is surprising. More than 2,500 copies of the first volume have been sold in five counties of South Wales, and almost exclusively among the Independents. This is going beyond the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, considering the limited number of the population.

I am, Rev. Sir,

Yours truly,

THOMAS REES.

Philadelphia, June 6th, 1845.

REV. AND DEAR SIR,-Your kind letter and the accompanying specimen of the translation of my Notes, were duly received. I beg your acceptance of a copy of my Notes on the New Testament, as far as published, which I committed, as you will perceive from the above receipt, to the care of Wiley and Putnam. I hope you will receive them safely. There is another volume stereotyped, but not yet published, embracing the Epistles, from 1 Thess. to Philemon. I have prepared about half of the exposition of 1 Peter, and shall endeavour to put all that remains of the Epistles, from James

to the Book of Revelation, into one volume. It will be a good while, however, before that is completed. I write slowly, and do not attempt to hurry matters. My habit is, to write on these Notes until nine o'clock each morning; and all that I have ever done on this head has been accomplished as a pleasant morning exercise before that hour in the day. The remainder of the day, from nine o'clock, I devote to my sermons and pastoral duties. The preparation of these Notes, in which you have so kindly interested yourself, has been among the most pleasant things in my life; bringing me each morning into close contact with a portion of the word of God, and I trust thus helping my own heart, while I have been endeavouring to aid others in the knowledge of the truth.

I need not say that I am exceedingly gratified and thankful for the interest which you have been pleased to take in my works, and for your labours in enabling me to address the minds of many Christians in Wales. I hope God will bless you for this labour of love, and that in your own heart in the present life, and in the glory of the life to come, you will find an abundant reward.

You expressed a desire in your letter to possess some biographical notice of me, to gratify those who might read these Notes. The incidents of my life have had little to interest any one, beyond what commonly occurs to those who labour as pastors of churches. I was born in Rome, in the state of New York, Dec. 1, 1798. I am, of course, now in my forty-seventh year. My father and mother were from Connecticut, and were of respectable though humble origin. My father, who is now living, was a tanner and currier by trade, and had also a small farm, which he cultivated. I lived with him until I was about seventeen years of age, and worked at the trade of a tanner until I was able to carry on the business tolerably well myself. At that time I was persuaded to go to an academy, -having had before only a common school education, though a good one, and I designed then to study law. I continued at the academy about three years, with some intervals, in which I was engaged in teaching a common school, to obtain the means of completing my education, and then entered the senior class of Hamilton College, in the state of New York, where I graduated in 1820. During the time in which I was in college, a revival of religion occurred, and, I trust, I was enabled to give my heart to

God; and immediately on leaving college I united with the Presbyterian church in my native town. Before that, I had embraced infidel notions, and had been a pretty thorough sceptic, though my external conduct was not grossly immoral. I was entirely ignorant on the subject of religion, had never owned a Bible, and up to the time when my mind was seriously informed, I do not know that I had ever read twenty chapters in that book. I entered the Theological Seminary in Princeton, under the care of the Presbyterian church, in the autumn of 1820, and continued there nearly four years, and was then settled as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Morristown, N. J., where I remained five years and a half, and then (in 1830) removed to this city. I have been here, of course, fifteen years. The congregation of which I am pastor is the first Presbyterian congregation in this city, and has been commonly supposed to be the oldest congregation of our order in the United States. It is a large and wealthy congregation, highly intelligent, liberal in the support of the benevolent operations of the day, and abundantly kind to me.. I have a family, consisting of a wife and three children. My two sons are in college, and are both members of the church, and I hope that one or both of them will study for the ministry.

I should not have gone into these personal details if you had not requested me, and I cannot suppose that they will have any particular interest for any one: though when one reads a book, it is pleasant to know something of the author. I believe there is nothing in my life that would be of any special use to a minister, unless it is the fact which I have been enabled to illustrate, that by regular habits, and a careful attention to health, and a steady application from day to day, and a regular devotion of a couple of hours or more in the morning of the day to some one pursuit, a man may write a great deal. What I have done has been by this. steady application, and by perseverance, in what to me has been a very pleasant pursuit from year to year. I pray that God may bless you in all your labours, and make you eminently useful to your own people, and to the church at large. It will always gratify me to receive a letter from you, whenever it may be convenient for you to write.

CHRISTIAN'S PENNY MAGAZINE.

AT the time of our going to press, it is, of course, impossible to give our friends any definite information relative to the ultimate probable success of the PENNY MAGAZINE; So far, however, as the matter has gone, things wear a favourable appearance. The demand for the specimen copy has been much greater than was anticipated; on looking over the Publisher's Order Book, we perceive, with grateful pleasure, that the roll of names covers the whole country. We have also received a number of letters from friends whose copies have reached them, and who express satisfaction with the matter and form of the work. Several of them, however, state a wish, if it should be practicable, to have a coloured wrapper. This matter was, at the outset, duly considered by our Committee, but it is beset with great difficulty. With so great a quantity of paper and letter-press for so small a sum, unless the circulation be immense, the publication cannot proceed; but if the circulation should be such as is required, to clothe it with a wrapper would inevitably involve a serious loss. Suppose the circulation to be upwards of 200,000, a wrapper for the numbers of a year would cost somewhere about £500, while all that could possibly be obtained from the advertisements it would bear would scarcely exceed a fifth of that sum; there would, therefore, be an annual loss of about four hundred pounds! This is the reason, why not one of the largely-circulating cheap secular periodicals bears a wrapper. To do so would be the ruin

of a majority of them; in some cases, it would swallow up half their profits, in others the whole, and in a few it would involve even a heavy additional loss. But really the want is a very subordinate affair; it is merely a thing of taste, or of custom. We hardly think that

VOL. III.

the aspect of the PENNY MAGAZINE would be thereby improved. The views of our respected friends shall, nevertheless, be reported to our Committee, who, as after the experience of the first three months they will be in a better situation for dealing definitely with the question, may probably resume its consideration.

The great point which calls for present attention is, the adoption of the most efficient methods of promoting our circulation,-a matter, which, we rejoice to say, is very safe in the hands where we have placed it-those of our devoted friends! Every post brings fresh and ample proof, that among them all is life, zeal, and action. In one congregation, of an important city, "a shilling subscription has been set on foot to purchase five or six hundred copies for gratuitous distribution among the class for which the publication is specially intended, in the hope that the receivers may become regular subscribers." This is the way to proceed! Another gentleman has taken measures to supply a copy to every family in the parish to which he belongs. Country grocers, &c., are ordering them in quantities to lie on their counters, to be given in part change to such as choose to have them! Individuals are purchasing them per hundred to be given away among their poor neighbours, in the hope of their ultimately becoming subscribers! Nor are our beloved brethren wanting in their duty. For example, one of them writes, "I am exceedingly gratified with it myself, and my friends here are the same; yesterday, I publicly from the pulpit most earnestly recommended it twice; and I have no doubt whatever that I shall secure for it a very large sale in this place and the neighbourhood." Another writes, "I shall show it to my Sunday-school teachers to-morrow. Allow me to say, that its form and fulness, for the price, is a typographical wonder, and will, I

D

hope, be a herald of other cheap and attractive movements in our periodical literature. Why not have a Penny Newspaper, on Christian principles, to promote specifically truth and godliness?" Passing from individuals to public bodies, it is our privilege to set forth the following resolution of the South Devon Congregational Union, viz. :-"That this meeting cordially and unanimously hails the announcement of the forthcoming CHRISTIAN PENNY MAGAZINE, under the superintendence of the Rev. Dr. Campbell, and pledges itself by every means in its power to promote its thorough circulation in the churches of this Association." Many of our readers will remember that this Union had assigned to it the first place also in movements which placed the CHRISTIAN WITNESS on the vantage ground which it now occupies. The prompt and generous support of these our brethren is duly appreciated. Another zealous friend thus writes; "I beg leave to suggest the plan of enlisting the services of a very numerous, devoted, and efficient class of persons-our Religious Tract distributors. If these could be supplied in their various districts with a January Number as a specimen, they might, if hearty in the work, induce a vast number to subscribe for it among the very class whom it is designed to benefit, especially if they would engage to supply them monthly with it, as there is great reluctance felt by very many of the poor to apply to a bookseller." We respectfully commend this excellent suggestion to all our friends whom it concerns to give effect to it. Last not least, our worthy friends, the booksellers, are, in many places, heartily with us. A clever member of that important body, in one of our principal towns, offers suggestions too important to be withheld. "The great art in disposing of such cheap publications consists in keeping them constantly before the public, thus creating a sale all the month round, until another number, having fresh interest, succeeds. Booksellers who have any desire to do good, and whose interest in what they sell is not entirely absorbed by the amount brought into their own pockets, will do well to meditate upon this suggestion. By a little attention to the manner of going about the thing, they may advance their own interests and do a great public good at the same time. The risk is in fact nothing, while the good effected is incalculable. The mind of that immense substratum of society, the lowest class, can only be reached and effectually operated upon by the means you propose. If other booksellers should require the PENNY MAGAZINE in the same proportion as myself, it seems very probable that your anticipations with re

gard to circulation will be realized. I observe that the relative proportion of circulation, as between the WITNESS and the PENNY MAGAZINE, which you intimate the desirableness of attaining, is one to five; what I shall require will be as one to thirteen in favour of the latter. At the same time, I have not the slightest apprehension of any falling off in the circulation of the WITNESS, but rather, on the contrary, as the merits and importance of the work become more generally appreciated, a gradual, steady increase."

We have this month received in all upwards of two hundred letters, many of them most able, interesting, and full of heart; but among them all none has so deeply touched and gratified us as the following, from "a Servant in a Gentleman's Family." The writer says, "Being a subscriber to your valuable magazine, the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, and the only subscriber in the parish in which I live, I have sent the twelve Numbers for 1844 round the parish; but having seen on the cover that the Union is about to publish a Penny Magazine, I felt anxious that all should see it. I had it given out, therefore, at the chapel to which I belong; but having received orders for only a dozen, while there are in the parish seventy-four families, I was still desirous that all may see and judge for themselves, and accordingly I went a begging to my friends, in a town about twelve miles distant, who have very kindly assisted me to get six dozen of numbers of the New Magazine. I am a member of a church of twenty-one members, who are all poor labouring people. We subscribe £8 a-year towards the support of our minister, who deserves much more; he has two other churches but very little better. He does not get £30 a-year. May God bless you abundantly in all your undertakings!"-This we consider an example of true moral greatness. Worthy of this is that of one of our young ministers, Mr. Harsant, of Bassingbourn, who says in a letter just received, “I hope to get from three to four hundred of my people to take it." This perfects the climax. We look for no instance, all things considered, that will surpass these. Were such a spirit to pervade the land our monthly circulation would, without fail, ascend to a MILLION !

All things considered, there is not a little ground for indulging a hope that God will give this new vehicle of heavenly truth a large measure of favour in the sight of his people.

THE CONGREGATIONAL CALENDAR. AMONG the good and cheap things of our day, one of the best and cheapest is the Congrega

tional Calendar and Family Almanac. For Nonconformists it is assuredly the best shilling's worth anywhere to be found. In the variety and worth of its contents, this volume is fully equal to any of its predecessors. The account of our own denomination in Great Britain, Ireland, and the colonies is more complete than any that has yet appeared. The statistical intelligence respecting other bodies, and especially the article devoted to European Protestantism, are highly deserving of attention. it too much to express a hope that a copy of it will soon be found in all the more important families of every church in our body? To inspire the fullest confidence in the work, it is only necessary to say that its Editor is the Rev. John Blackburn, one of the Secretaries of the Union.

Is

THE CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE. It was with the deepest regret we heard our much-valued friend Mr. Blackburn, at the Union Meeting in Manchester, announce his intention, at the close of the year now expired, of surrendering the management of the Congregational Magazine, which we have always considered at the head of its class. Mr. Blackburn, in his official relation to that important organ, has, through a long series of years, rendered to the Congregational churches, and to the cause of scriptural Christianity, in Britain and her colonies, an amount of service which has never been adequately compensated, acknowledged, or even understood by the bulk of our people. We much regret that the knowledge, talents, tact, and experience of our friend in matters of periodical literature, should be lost to the public; but if anything can reconcile us to the circumstance, it is the turn the matter has taken respecting the future character of the Congregational Magazine. The arrangements are such as to render it impossible that the Journal shall suffer loss by the change. It is now in the hands of five of the most efficient men of our own or of any denomination for the work assigned them; men who deserve, and who will in this affair, as they already have in all else that appertains to them, command the universal confidence of the Nonconformists of the British empire. It will henceforth become, to all intents, a New Journal. Leaving the Millions to the PENNY MAGAZINE and the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, the editors mean to sail in high latitudes; their own account of the matter is the following:-"The editors of the Congregational Magazine and Biblical Review design that its pages shall be devoted chiefly to the theology

of the Bible, embracing the various branches of scientific and applied theology, properly so called; together with biblical criticism and interpretation, and ecclesiastical history. In subservience to the same design, they propose to treat of subjects belonging to civil history; philology; antiquities; the arts; natural, mental, and moral science; and to every branch of knowledge by which theological truth-'portus et sabbatum humanarum contemplationum om. nium'-can be illustrated.'" Such is to be the work-the very work that was wanted. The supremacy of the United States in this class of publication is from this time at an end. With many thanks for all the benefit derived in past years from the admirable Biblical Repository we shall henceforth provide for ourselves. The work is to be enlarged, without any increase of price. Now, then, now for FIVE THOUSAND A MONTH FOR THE FIRST YEAR, AND THEN A STEADY INCREASE!

BRITISH QUARTERLY AND ECLECTIC. WHILE the PENNY MAGAZINE leads, this great work brings up the rear in the Independent Periodical Procession. How changed the position of our body, in relation to this great subject, in January, 1846, from that which it occupied in January, 1843! By three creations and one reconstruction, with the Eclectic, it now boasts such a Periodical Apparatus as belongs to no other religious community in England, in Europe, or in the world. No Christian community ever achieved so much in this direction in the same period. Surely here is ground for thanking God and taking courage. Our colleges were first adjusted; then the religious Periodical Press; the Pulpit will follow; and then the Church. The set time to favour our Zion is drawing on! When duly prepared for the blessing, it will descend in showers! Of the BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW the guiding principle is patriotism-not party. Its word of honest and hearty commendation is given to men who do the state service in literature, art, or science, whatever may be their political connection. It has abundantly shown itself to be the uncompromising advocate of commercial freedom, and of all measures tending to secure the welfare of our common country, by abating the just causes of alienation between the rich and poor-the governing and the governed. Its homage is done, not to might, but to right. It is the resolute foe of all falseness and injustice. Its theology is that of the Protestant Reformation, separated from the scholasticism of the times of our forefathers, and exhibited in the form and