tributed even as they now are, they deserve the most efficient support they can obtain. It would be incalculable folly to tamper with them without the certainty of real improvement.

The benefits resulting from the provincial and county associations, are, however far surpassed by those accruing and likely to accrue from the Congregational Union for England and Wales. The extent to which this Union has already advanced our brotherly communion with each other, and associated us in investigations and undertakings which interest us all in common, none of us can tell. It would be fruitless to attempt particulars in this paper, but we must be permitted to express, as we do with all sincerity, our deep sense of obligation to the brethren who originated it amidst many difficulties and forebodings, and to its Secretaries, who by their wisdom, frankness, perseverance, and practical ability have raised it to its present pitch of favour and usefulness.

The labours of the Union involve, dear brethren, as you know, among others, several literary undertakings. The most important of these are the Historical Memorials of the Independents, compiled by Mr. Hanbury, in three volumes 8vo; the "Congregational Hymn-Book,' (which is understood to have been for several years the Union's chief source of income;) and two prize essays upon lay agency, entitled, "Jethro," and "Our Country." Some of the publications of the Union have connected with them a special financial object. Its two monthly periodicals, the CHRISTIAN WITNESS and the CHRISTIAN'S PENNY MAGAZINE, were intended partly to provide suitable religious reading for some neglected classes of our population, partly to create a fund whence the indigence of our aged ministers might be relieved. Having now enumerated and described our principal denominational institutions, we proceed III. To set forth the wisdom and necessity of supporting them more generally and systematically.

An appeal of this kind seems to imply that our institutions receive but a partial and irregular support. This implication is unfortunately just. There is not one of them, not even our Divine Redeemer's own institute-the Christian ministrywhich is universally and systematically supported. Though more generally_sustained, and justly so, than any of those which we ourselves have organized, its claims are very far from being appre

ciated as they should be. Some still withhold any acknowledgment whatever of its claims, and of others not a few dole out their contributions with a niggardly, uncertain hand. The true minister of Christ, we know, is not bound to his arduous but blessed office by the love of filthy lucre. He will learn, like the Apostle, both "to be full and to be hungry," both "to abound and to suffer need." He will learn, "in whatsoever state" he is, that consists with honest living, with freedom from debt, with the discharge of all his proper obligations, "therewith to be content." But the virtue of the minister is not to be a subterfuge for the sordid avarice, or a shelter for the more thoughtless selfishness of the hearer; and our Lord in heaven hears with indignation the cry of his own servants' wages kept back by unjust stewards, whether locked up in investments, or wasted in indulgence, or misapplied even to the enlargement of social wealth. Many of us, especially in retired districts, and many too who little think it, many who would blush with shame and grief if they knew the truth, many well-meaning and not usually inequitable persons have yet to learn the very elements of justice, as to the provision which they make for the minister of their own choice. Brethren, this thing ought not to be; let it not be.

Far less general and systematic even than this, however, is the support which is rendered to our British Missions and our Colleges. A nearer approach to what is right is, indeed, visible in our contributions to heathen missions, (though even these fall very short of what the vast importance of the object calls for,) but in reference to all the claims of home, there is a grievous, we must confess it, a shameful deficiency. We seem, in reference to this branch of our obligations to be defaulters in principle. Else, how is the fault so general? Yet, what principle? What can possibly be said in extenuation of our almost total neglect of the heathen of our native land, the benighted Romanists of Ireland, and the self-expatriated exiles of our colonies, all of whom are perishing by millions for lack of knowledge, but that we have not considered it? "But doth not he who pondereth the heart consider it?" hope and consolation is, that when these claims are really understood, the churches will arise to their duty. Condemned by our own hearts for the loss of souls, the souls of our own countrymen, the souls

Our

of Erin's children perishing under our own eyes in the jaws of the Papacy, the souls of the godly seed of Independency pining in vain to hear a pastor's voice in distant settlements-we shall be no longer satisfied with the meagre offerings we have hitherto contributed for their relief, but while all join heart and soul, and as one man, in the simultaneous October collections, (collections which are really to us, what the little cloud was to Elijah, the sensible assurance of future showers of blessing,) those of us who can will also aid them by individual and family subscriptions, till they attain a magnitude proportioned to this threefold service required at our hands.

Our colleges are not, upon the whole, so ill-supported as our British Missions. Their incomes, though several of them are in debt, approach nearer to the equitable standard than the incomes of the three British Societies. They are, however, even less generally cared for; and as the bulk of our denomination is still strangely ignorant of their value, and the relation in which they stand to our denominational prosperity, it is even more important to enforce their claim. We have already stated our conviction that on their stability and prosperity depends, under Providence, the efficiency, generally considered, of our future ministry, and as a natural consequence, that of all our churches and their institutions. They are, though not of absolute necessity, yet in fact, the main springs of our evangelical and denominational machinery. If their action is enfeebled, all the rest will drag. Sustain this motive power, and the whole, if otherwise adjusted duly to its several ends and offices, will work with harmony, precision, and success. Suppose our older colleges had not existed fifty or a hundred years ago, how different would the aspect of our churches have been now! How many of ourselves owe our conversion instrumentally to ministers who were trained in them! How many moral wastes have become fruitful gardens beneath the agency they have supplied! Congregationalists of England! Those colleges were founded by our forefathers for their posterity, shall we do nothing for ours? Honour, gratitude, and holy charity alike require that we should transmit them unimpaired, and with them their younger sisters, the hopeful offspring of the nineteenth century, to coming generations. Our children's children will need pastors and evangelists when every living preacher's

tongue is silent in the grave. Oh! see to the succession of a godly, learned, humble, and devoted ministry, to guide their souls into the way of peace.

And now, dear brethren, suffer a remonstrance touching secular education. As to our poorer classes much still remains to be done to justify our late repudiation of legislative interference? Essex, it is true, has set a great example; and extensive provision has been made elsewhere, particularly in large towns. But notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding that an encouraging measure of success has attended the labour of our able and devoted Educational Society -during the past year, our obligations in this direction are yet very considerable. Large and numerous districts are still unprovided with schools; and where schools exist, they are, in many places, far less efficient than they should be. As to the middle and upper classes, Millhill, and a few good private grammar schools, are our provision for all England. For our young men, if University College is not deemed eligible, and they do not like to go to Scotland, Ireland, or across the channel, or the German ocean, for their university advantages and honours, there is no resource for them but Oxford or Cambridge. Accordingly they pass the Rubicon. They go to Oxford, where their first academical act is virtual recantation-probably, a lie! Or it may be, too virtuous yet for that, and allured by her matriculation, they enter Cambridge. This step is usually but a protracted temptation. They perhaps obtain, amidst sneers and wonderment, the learning they go for; their names perhaps stand high upon the list of wranglers, but no academical honour will be awarded them, unless they subscribe the articles. With judgments overcome by flattery, ambition stimulated by success, and consciences ensnared by their enforced compliance with the religious ceremonies of their college, what probability is there that they will preserve their integrity? Seldom indeed does the struggle between principle and worldly interest last so long. Those who leave Cambridge, Dissenters, are usually new converts to dissent. Consider then, dear brethren, the state of our secular education, as respects both poor and rich, and ask yourselves if it is worthy of a body which pretends to have received the love of learning as an heirloom from the Nonconformists of the seventeenth century.

Things being thus, then, brethren, how

shall our condition be improved? for we see that in many, and those obviously important respects, it needs improvement, and we must lose no more time. The first step is to discern and feel our duty. That is the immediate object of this address. The next is to obtain an accurate estimate of our resources. This object has engaged the attention of the Union for some time past, and they are preparing suggestions for you on the subject, which it is confidently hoped will secure your cordial co-operation. The third step is the combined, sustained, and systematic movement of the entire denomination in support of our institutions, a movement absolutely necessary not merely to our prosperity, or usefulness in the world, but even our preservation from decay. And what should hinder it? Our Independency? No, our independency, if by it we mean the ecclesiastical system which our Robinsons, Owens, and Clarksons professed and acted on, and which we ourselves have acted on, though so imperfectly and with so little zeal, in our provincial and county associations, is no hindrance whatever to it. Our fathers confederated for mutual help and counsel, we do the same: where is the wisdom of arresting this sound and necessary principle of all religious communities at the very point to which all previous efforts tend, and in which they find their true, legitimate, successful result? To go further than we do would control the churches, would endanger individual liberty. What if all be associated! If all take a part! If all work together! Is then their old proverb reversed? Is dissension strength? Or is the great secret of our weakness this, that we conceive ourselves in greater danger from our brethren than from others? Let us be ruled by this delusion and nothing can arrest our decline. "The house which is divided against itself cannot stand."

Brethren, we have been long asleep, and while we have slept, the enemy has come in and sown his tares. As our feebleness results mainly from our isolation, so our isolation was the guilty offspring of our indolence. Now let us awake for action, and awake in mutual confidence and love. The enemy of souls has not been idle. He has filled the world with his successes. Retaining almost all his ancient conquests, in heathen and Mahometan countries, and in the synagogues of outcast Israel, he has reinforced the Papacy in every quarter of the globe, devised new forms of infi

delity for Protestant Europe, and reenergized the virus which, never absolutely latent, has for many years been powerfully counteracted in the constitution of the Anglican Establishment. To select one single instance: consider what he has lately done in the Pacific, and remember that the Jesuits, the instigators of the outrage on Tahiti, are covering even England with their snares. They work unseen and unsuspected. It is time that we awoke out of our sleep.

But God also has bared his arm to do a great work in the earth. China is opened to our missionaries. Germany is struggling in the throes of a second childbirth, the issue of which promises to be a mortal quarrel between Romanism and infidelity. In Scotland, as you all know, a number of our Presbyterian brethren, having by a strong effort of united will, and at no small sacrifice of property and feeling, emancipated themselves in a body from the yoke of patronage, have reorganized themselves as a community in actual separation from the State, and carried out a noble scheme of voluntary confederation in support of their principles. Oh! let us see God's hand in all these movements, and let his people hear his voice. Shall our Scottish brethren, forced by circumstances into Voluntaryism, put to shame its old, spontaneous advocates? Shall we who waged no losing battle with them in the field of controversy on this very point, now that they are driven within our lines by others, contentedly see them conduct our principles to higher conquests than we ourselves have realized, or even aimed at? Is this the time for us to fold our hands in indolence, when foes are plotting our destruction, and our brethren (whom God bless!) are giving us so noble an example?

We trust then, dear brethren, that our independency will not be made a bugbear to deter us from united action, and that we shall have discernment to decipher what is written for us in the signs of the times. We must work together, and we must carry our co-operation for great objects to the highest practicable point. We want no alteration in our polity; to that, though not esteeming ourselves infallible, we cling with unabated confidence. We want no resignation by the churches, their pastors, or private brethren of their individual responsibility. Our views and objects render it imperative that we should cherish to the utmost the Christian sentiment of individual responsibility. The principle that

all must work, that none of us is allowed by God to have his work to be done by others, is the very principle on which we take our stand. If to this we add that all must work together, we urge this not for hindrance but for help. Why should not our entire denomination aim to realize the Apostle's beautiful idea in the Epistle to the Ephesians? Why should not the "whole body fitly framed together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, make increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love?"

Co-operation of this order will involve a vast increase of liberality. We are confident that liberality will not be wanting. Our hopes in this respect are strongly raised by the interest already taken in the simultaneous October collections for British Missions. These collections are an effort of the right character, and in the right direction. We strenuously urge our brethren to make them universal in our congregations, and to extend the same kind of support to all our principal institutions. Our colleges, our Sabbath and Day-schools should all be aided in this way. The London Missionary Society, we believe, receives much of its support in annual collections, and we urge the practice on behalf of other institutions; not that the collections for that great society may be interfered with, but that its resources may be strengthened. Though not a denominational institution, you are aware that the London Missionary Society derives by far the largest amount of its resources from us; and the more we draw out the self-supporting liberality of our denominations, the more shall we secure the continuance of this great Society's prosperity.

Our institutions must also, as heretofore, be sustained by private and family subscriptions. We rejoice that such contributions are not now so restricted as they used to be within the old conventional limits, but that they expand with the importance or necessity of the appealing object. Many of our brethren seem to have understood of late the paradox of liberality: "it is more blessed to give than to receive." Oh! if individuals and families whom God has eminently blessed with temporal wealth would more generally express their gratitude to him by pre-eminent contributions to his cause, how profitable would it be to them and to the church! The grace of giving is not indeed to be

esteemed exclusively or principally_by the largeness of the benefaction. The day is coming when "a cup of cold water given in the name of Jesus shall not lose its reward." And in that day it will be a greater comfort to the rich to have educated, or supported a minister of Christ, for home or abroad, to have maintained a preaching station, to have founded a school, a college, a scholarship, or an hospital, than to have reared a mansion, planted vineyards and eaten the fruit of them, or portioned off their sons and daughters with the nobles of the land.

We must then, dear brethren, work together to that let us make up our minds. We must work unitedly and on system: none of us must leave his work to be performed by others. We must all in our several districts and official stations lend our help to realize a correct statistic survey of our whole denomination, its numbers, relative position, enterprise, and resources. We must "not

forsake the assembling of ourselves together." Our Lord's-day assemblies, our church meetings for edification or discipline, the meetings of our various evangelical, educational, economical institutions, our provincial and country associations, and, though last not least, the assemblies of our Congregational Union must be sedulously attended. We must "provoke one another to love, and to good works." We must contribute freely of our substance, as God has prospered us, to the cause of God; especially in the denomination which, we conscientiously believe, embodies more of the mind of Christ as set forth in the New Testament than any other. Is this our resolution? Then let us seek help of God to keep it, for we never formed one more dutiful, more self-denying, or more arduous. May God of his abounding goodness give us grace to fulfil it. He alone can keep our hearts devoted to himself, secure us from impurity of motive, preserve us from despondency amidst infirmities or adverse circumstances, hide pride from us amidst success. "Faithful is he who hath called us, who also will do it." Would we seek his glory, we must seek his face. "And may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.