By the time he got through with these waking dreams, his candle, which he ought to have blowed out, was all burned down. "No matter," said he, "I can dress myself just as well in the dark." But when the morning came it was cold and dark, and the ground was frozen. He overslept, and at the call of his father had to spring from the bed and hasten to the cars, or he would be too late. Up he sprang, and dressed himself in almost no time. His boots seemed to go on hard, but on they went. He started, and walked and ran over the rough frozen ground, and actually reached the platform barely in season to get into the cars. But how he had run and toiled! And now he began to feel that his boots hurt him. His feet were sore, and they ached, and all at once it flashed upon him that in consequence of his haste and carelessness he had got the wrong boot on both legs. But his feet were wedged in, and in the cars without a boot-jack he found it impossible to get them off. All day long he lived in agony, and when he reached the city his feet were blistered, corns were started, and troubles for years to come were laid up for him. He had no time to rest and heal his poor abused feet, and for a very long time he suffered for that which he thought "of no conseqnence." But it was a good lesson for poor Jem. He began to see that little things which seem "of no consequence" at the time, may have great results in the future; and it made him a cautious, careful man, after long years of discipline. Now we all have some weakness, some spot at which we are very likely to fail. It is one thing in one man, and another thing in another. What shall we do to prevent the consequences of these frailties? I answer, do three things: 1. Set a double watch over the easily besetting sin every day and hour. 2. Strive very hard to recover, if you trip. 3. Ask your heavenly Father to help you and to keep you. It belongs to the young to attend to this; for many a boy feels like Jem Hasty, that it is "of no consequence," when in fact the results may be terrible even for years to come. Many a character is ruined and the hopes of friends are crushed by no greater mistake than putting the boot on the wrong foot.--From "Nuts for Boys to Crack," by John Todd, D.D. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. Sunday Echoes from Paris. Fourteen Sermons, preached in the English Church in the Rue D'Aguessean, with a short preface to each. By John F. SERJEANT, Assistant Chaplain. London: James Nisbet & Co. THESE Sermons are thoroughly evangelical in doctrine, and clear and vigorous in style. Without any pretensions to profoundness or eloquence, there is a sprightliness and homeliness about them which make them, what few sermons are, quite readable. The volume is unique in one respect-in the preface which introduces each sermon, telling us the history of its genesis, and when, where, and how often it has been preached. This looks, we confess, very like affectation, or as if the preacher regarded his sermons as so important that readers must know all about them. And yet the prefaces themselves are quite unaffected in style, and tell their tale in an easy and gossipy manner. Of the first sermon (Text, Acts ix. 23, 24) the author says:-"I found the germ of the following sermon somewhere in the pages of that Prince of PreachersWilliam Jay. I think it is in one of his Morning or Evening Exercises. He gives, in his comment on the words of the text, only three divisions of my sermon. What he saw, what he felt, what he did. To these I added the fourth-what he was." Of another sermon he says:"The divisions of the sermon are taken from Matthew Henry. There are a few thoughts in it from Mr. Ryle's tract, 'Living or Dead,' while the illustration of the carriage wheels and its spokes is a souvenir of a speech which I heard twenty years ago from Dr. Cumming." Again :-" Those who are familiar with Sidney Smith's writings will recognise a sentence or two; while, for two or three other sentences towards the end of the sermon, the pages of Mr. McLaren, of Manchester, have been laid under contribution." And so on. Sometimes Mr. Serjeant criticises his own sermons, and sometimes he remarks on his audiences, as when he says of Dawlish, in Devonshire:-"No one listened to me. I preached on a Sunday afternoon in summer, and the hearers were chiefly rustics. How hard it is to move such." All this is of little moment to the world to know or not to know. And if preachers generally followed the example of our author, the world would not contain the books that should be written. But we have quoted from his prefaces to suggest to our ministerial brethren what may prove to be a useful as well as interesting employment, the tracing of the history of their own thoughts and compositions. Thoughts on Preaching, specially in relation to the requirements of the age. By DANIEL MOORE, M.A., Honorary Chaplain in ordinary to the Queen, etc., etc. Second Edition, with considerable enlargements and additions. London: Hatchard's. THIS Volume may be read with advantage by young preachers and by old. It is the work of a man who knows how to preach, and knows how to help others towards excellence in the same great calling. The titles of its ten chapters will give some idea of its contents:--I. Preaching, as an ordinance of God. II. The office of preaching, as designed for the instruction of mankind in religious truth. III. The intellectual demands of the present age. IV. Persuasion as the final object of preaching. V. The parts and arrangements of a sermon. VI. On style in relation to preaching. VII. The subject matter of preaching. VIII. The delivery of a sermon. IX. Extemporary preaching, and its efficacy as compared with the written sermon. X. Supplemental topics. Conclusion. Mr. Moore discusses these many subjects with a moderation and sobriety which are the fruits of a varied experience, and with that earnestness which the importance of the subject demands. He does not sacrifice the intellectual to the spiritual, nor the spiritual to the in tellectual. On his very last page he says of the former:- "The kind of teaching required must be teaching, not for an age of manuscripts, but for an age of books; not for an age in which the first rudiments of sacred science have to be taught by little and little, but for an age of large, ready, and widely - diffused popular intelligence, when even the poorest will be comparing the statements he hears in the pulpit with the books which he can read at home." But of the subservience of the intellectual to the spiritual, he says, on the same page :-"God has told us we are to covet earnestly the best gifts; and intellect is one of the best. the limits of its employment in the pulpit are defined plainly. It is to clothe truth with power. It is to adorn holiness with beauty. It is to help to seat the conscience on its throne. It is to witness for a loving Saviour and a pardoning God, to the world, to angels, and to men. It is well used of the Christian minister to reclaim the erring, to instruct the ignorant, to convince the gainsayer, to establish the wavering and the weak. The rest is vanity. The rest is presumption. The rest is sin." HYMN BOOKS. But 1. The Mission Hymn Book. London: Jarrold & Sons. 2. The New Sunday-School Hymn Book. New Edition. Edited by Edwin HoDDER. London: Hodder & Stoughton. 3. A Book of Praise for Home and School. Selected and arranged by S. D. MAJOR. Bath: S. D. Major. 4. Gems of Song for the Sunday-School, and for use in Families. Edited by GEORGE THOS. CONGREVE. London: Elliot Stock. 5. The Smaller Congregational Hymn Book. Designed for Prayer Meetings, Village Services, and Family Worship. London: Hodder & Stoughton. 6. The Congregational Sunday - School Hymn Book. London: Hodder and Stoughton. WE cannot attempt to characterise these various Hymn Books. They are all good, but it would be very difficult to determine their degrees of excellence, or to show wherein one may excel another. The first contains 226 hymns; the second, 190; the third, 315; the fourth, 204; the fifth, 154; and the sixth, 310. Religious Republics: Six Essays on Congregationalism. London: Longmans, Green & Co. We have long proposed to enable our readers to form a judgment of this volume for themselves, by carefully-selected extracts from its pages. But "the best laid schemes" of editors as well as other people are often frustrated, and we can now do little more than announce its publication. We have long wished to see a volume of this order. Oxford and Cambridge have given us volumes of essays on subjects of university or general interest. Various sections of the Church of England have published in the same form manifestoes of their beliefs and aims. And why should not Congregationalists ? It has now been done, and done by young men, and being young, comparatively unknown. This increases our satisfaction. There is a general disposition to look to certain men of mark and notoriety, and to expect that everything relating to us as a body shall emanate from them, or have in some shape their imprimatur. And we too much forget the vast amount of intelligence and power which must exist in less prominent but highlyeducated circles, both lay and ministerial. Of the existence of such intelligence and power, we are pleasantly reminded by these Six Essays. "The aim of the volume," the preface explains, "is twofold: first, to describe the religious system of Congregationalists, whether Baptist or Independent, and the forms of character and opinion which it has contributed to produce; and secondly, to explain the basis of reason on which Congregational Nonconformity rests." The first Essay is by William Mitchell Fawcett, Barrister-at-Law, on Congregational Polity." The second is by T. M. Herbert, M.A., Minister of the Independent Church at Cheadly, near Manchester, on "The External Relations of Congregationalism." The third is by Edward Gilbert Herbert, LL.B., Barristerat-Law, on "The Congregational Character." The fourth is by Harwood Pattison, Minister of the Ryehill Baptist Church at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on Congregationalism and Esthetics. The fifth is by Phillip Henry Pye-Smith, M.D., on "Congregationalism and Science." And the last is by James Anstie, B.A., Barrister-atLaw, on "The Spirit of Nonconformity." The writers are thoroughly acquainted with the body whose views and character they represent, and give their opinions with great moderation and fairness. Speaking for a denomination more distinguished for essential unity than for an apparent uniformity, all their opinions will not be accepted by all. And they are not by us. But we cannot withhold our expression of indebtedness to the authors of the Essays for their manly vindication of the principles of Congregationalism. We give one extract,-not as a specimen, but because of the relation of its subject to arguments used in the Irish Church debate in high places:-"It has been reckoned as a fatal defect of voluntary churches, that those who find the money must necessarily be the rulers; because, as it is said, they have it in their power to withdraw the pecuniary support on which the organization depends. This is a sample of a good many objections urged against Congregationalism by writers who are not practically acquainted with the working of the system. It is a very fine theoretical difficulty: it looks likely to be true; yet nevertheless, it is almost wholly without foundation. In some small congregations, there may perhaps be men whose single contributions are so large, in comparison with the gross sum raised by all the other members of the congregation, as to render the withdrawal of such contributions hazardous to the existence of the society. Under these exceptional circumstances it is quite conceivable that the man who pays for everything will be permitted to have everything his own way. But to assert of the great body of Congregational Churches that they necessarily become timocratic, in the sense of being governed by one or two large subscribers, is ludicrously incorrect. For, in the first place, the greater part of the revenue of these churches is almost invariably derived from numerous contributions of small amount. Every member, and indeed every hearer, is expected to add something to the common fund. In this sense, certainly, some of those who find the money rule; but they do so, not because they have provided the money, but because they are members of the church. The largest subscriber to the funds of the society, if he has not this qualification, is excluded from taking any part in the decision of its affairs. If he has joined the church, the characteristic attitude of his fellow-members is not deference but jealousy. Where wealth is accompanied with high character, zeal, ability, and wisdom, these qualities will of course secure for their possessor, influence; but there are few societies in which wealth, without their accompaniments, will avail so little. Most congregationalist ministers can recall instances of men of wealth, whose persistent efforts to thrust themselves into the diaconate, have been frustrated by steady opposition of their fellow-members, deeming them unworthy of the office." The Hundredth Number of the British Quarterly. London: Hodder & Stoughton. WE welcome the Hundredth number of the "British Quarterly" right heartily. We remember the birth of the First number, and how heartily we welcomed it; and we have seen, we think, every number between the First and the Hundredth. We could easily lay our finger on articles which were not, to use a common phrase, up to the mark, and on articles from whose conclusions we differed. But we should be ungrateful, indeed, to the "Father and Founder" of the Review, and ungrateful to the honoured brethren who now conduct it, if we did not acknowledge the great service which it has rendered to the cause of Evangelical truth and Nonconformist principles; and we hope that the future will transcend the past in excellence of every order. We submit to our readers the following paragraphs from an article by the Editors, entitled, “A Retrospect and a Prospect": "In announcing a new series of the British Quarterly,' they would earnestly solicit for it the practical sympathy of those who value the principles which it advocates. Without adequate literary expositions, no cause dependent upon conviction can largely or permanently prosper. If, especially, children are to continue the work, and transmit the principles of their fathers, it is essential that these be inculcated in the highest forms of intellectual and moral exposition. It is impossible to over-estimate the practical importance of imbuing early thought and life with great principles, appealing to the highest reason for their truth, to the noblest feelings for their support, and to the most fastidious taste for a justification of their forms. Sometimes we hear from heads of families expressions of surprise and disappointment, when the sons whom otherwise they have highly educated, proved recreant to the principles of whose history and nobleness they are so justly proud, and which have been the strength and stay of their own characters. What wonder, when, beyond the accidental contacts of social life, no care has been bestowed to furnish them with worthy means of learning, how these principles justify themselves to the reason and religion of educated men. "In all churches, again, there are ministers of limited means; debarred, therefore, from much of the higher literature of the day, and even from those expositions of their own principles, which are elicited by the ever-changing aspects of great questions. Is it matter for surprise if the educated and opulent find such men practically incompetent to preach and lecture to their families on such matters, or to meet them in social converse on their own level of current intelligence? And yet how few such think of providing for their ministers access to such literature as would qualify them more adequately to be exponents of great principles. Literary journals of a high character rarely enter their circle, or come into the hands of their ministers." We commend these words, and the entire subject of Denominational Literature, to the earnest consideration of our readers. CONGREGATIONAL REGISTER. September-October. [To prevent mistakes and delay, all communications for the Register should be addressed to the Editor, 2, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, E.C., and marked on the envelope, "For Congregational Register."] JUBILEE SERVICE. Sept. 26, 27. DARTFORD. Sermons by the Pastor, Rev. J. H. Bowhay and Rev. J. Frame. A Public Meeting was held. Chair taken by C. Collins, Esq. COLLEGE OPENING. Sept. 15. Opening of BRECON Memorial College. Inaugural Address by Rev. T. Binney. Address by H. Richard, Esq., M.P., on "The Voices of the Fathers to their Ministerial Successors in Wales." ASSOCIATION MEETINGS. Sept. 14. Western Association of Congregational Ministers, SCOTLAND, at Cumnock. Essay by Rev. D. Russell, "References in the Epistles to our Lord's Life on Earth." Sermon by Rev. H. Batchelor. Sept. 15. Norfolk Congregational Union, at EAST DEREHAM. Chairman at Public Meeting, Rev. F. G. Terry. Aug. 25, 26. Conferences of Evangelical Churches of the South West of FRANCE, at St. Jeandu Gard. Sermon by M. le Pasteur Luigi. Paper on "Lefevre d'Etaples," by M. Barnaud; and on "The anointing with oil, and the confession of sins," by M. Luigi. Sept. 21. Shropshire Association, at MARKET DRAYTON. Chairman, T. Barnes, Esq. Addresses by Rev. G. Kettle, on "Church Unity;" Rev. H. Campbell, M.A., on "Church Action;" Rev. W. Champness, on "Church Prayer;" Rev. T. Gasquoine, B.A., on "Church Finance." Sept. 20, 21. North Bucks Association, at BICESTER. Sermon by Rev. J. Rowland. Address at the Devotional Meeting by Rev. J. W. Parker, on "Faithful Ministry." Sept. 30. Durham and Northumberland Association, at HEXHAM. President, Rev. J. Wadland, B.A. A Discussion took place on the Claims of the Colleges on the Churches; and a paper was read on a "Pastoral Sustentation Fund," by Rev. J. T. Shawcross. Derbyshire Congregational Union, Third District, at CURBAR, near Bakewell. Paper on Inspiration-its Form and Fulness," by Rev. T. G. Potter. Chairman, J. H. Hulme, Esq. Addresses were delivered on "The Union-its Work and Success;" "The Power of a Consecrated Life;" "Our Strength;" and "Spiritual Power in the Pulpit," by the Secretary and the Revs. H. Starmer, G. Luckett, and J. T. Hallowes. NEW CHAPELS OPENED. Aug. 26, 31, and Sept. 1, 5, and 12. Sept. 27, 28. Cowley Road, OXFORD, by Rev. J. Spence, D.D. (Pastor, Rev. J. S. Scammell). CHAPELS RE-OPENED. Aug. 8. Rugby, ORO, Canada (Pastor, Rev. J. G. Sanderson), by Rev. Principal Lillie, D.D. Sept. 16. REIGATE (Pastor. Rev. G. Adeney), by Rev. Dr. Stoughton. Sept. 21. YARDLEY HASTINGS (Pastor, Rev. J. Ault), by Rev. Dr. Spence. Sept. 23. The Temple, ST. MARY CRAY (Pastor, Rev. R. E. Forsaith), by Rev. J. C. Harrison. The building was renovated, and a new organ provided, at the expense of W. Joynson, Esq. Sept. 26. MARKET WEIGHTON, by Rev. E. H. Davies. Albion Chapel, ASHTON. UNDER-LYNE, by the Pastor, Rev. J. Hutchinson. CHAPEL DEBTS CLEARED. Eastborough, Scarborough. CHAPEL FOUNDATIONS LAID. Sept. 17. MOUNTAIN ASH, by S. Morley, Esq., M.P. Address by H. Richard, Esq., M.P. CROSS KEYS, Wales, by Mr. C. Lewis. Sept. 30. New Road, THORNTON, near Bradford, by Mr. J. Craven. Pastor, Rev. W. M. Arthur. Address by Rev. J. G. Rogers, B.A. Oct. 14. BURNGREAVE, Sheffield, by H. Allott, Esq.. |