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Now, how shall we follow this example of love and devotion, in our circumstances and with our light?

1. We stand by the cross, accepting it in its highest sense, when in the face of all opposition and heresy and error, we see in it, and maintain there is in it, the fountain of the world's life. What Christ did on the cross is the ground on which God now forgives sinners, on which He is propitious, and bestows on them pardon and purity. We must maintain this against all opposition. To take lower ground would be to stand afar off from the cross, or forsake it altogether. The offence of the cross has not yet ceased, and we must uplift it before the eyes of the world.

2. We stand by the cross when we imbibe to the fullest the spirit of the cross-the spirit of Him who died there. That was the spirit of selfsacrifice and self-forgetfulness. Of His self-forgetfulness we have a striking illustration in the fact that in the midst of His sufferings he could say to John, "Behold thy mother." And as to self-sacrifice, much as He had denied Himself in becoming Incarnate, in living a life of poverty, it was now especially that He was offering Himself a sacrifice for us. We cannot repeat that sacrifice in whole or in part. We cannot make our souls an offering for sin. But the mind that was in Him is the mind that must be in us. And the more it is, the more we have of the spirit of self-sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, the nearer do we stand to the cross.

On the seal of an American Missionary Society there is an instructive little picture. There stands the faithful, patient ox-he belongs not to himself, but to his master.

On

one

side of him is the plough, and on the other the altar. He knows not whether it is for service or for 'sacrifice that he is brought thither, but he is " ready for either." A lesson this for all Christians. Ready for either -the plough or the altar. And whether it be work or suffering, we must go to the one as well as to the other in the spirit of the cross. And our nearness to the cross will become measured by the degree in which this spirit is in us.

3. We stand by the cross when we are faithful to Christ's cause, as these Marys were of old, in the darkest hour. When He is crucified afresh, and put to an open shame by the unbelief and scorn of men, when we cannot avow ourselves on His side without loss or without reproach, then are we tried as were those who followed Christ to Calvary. And it is for us then to do as they did, and take our stand by the cross. We have in this the example, not of the Marys and John alone, but of Peter likewise. Though he forsook his Master and fled, he was recovered and brought back, and could say, "Thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." And from that hour he stood unfalteringly by the cross of his Lord. Through clouds and darkness, as well as in the bright and sunny day, his place was ever near to Christ, until on a cross like Christ's he laid down his life for his Master. Our fidelity to Christ can never lead to such an end as this. But it is often tried, and though it be but in small things, it is severely tried. And ours will be the crown at last only if we continue to stand where the Marys of old stood, by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

SPECIMENS OF RECENT POETRY.

1. By the Author of "Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family."

THE POET OF POETS.

"We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works."

We know there once was One on earth

Who penetrated all He saw,
To whom the lily had its worth,

And Nature bared her inmost law.
And when the mountain-side He trod,
The universe before Him shone,
Translucent in the smile of God,
Like young leaves in the morning sun.
Glory which Greece had never won,
To consecrate her Parthenon.

Nature her fine transmuting powers
Laid open to His piercing ken:
The life of insects and of flowers;

The lives, and hearts, and minds of

men;

Depths of the geologic past,

The mission of the youngest star ;—
No mind had ever grasp so vast,

No science ever dived so far.
All that our boldest guess sees dim
Lay clearly visible to Him.

Had He but uttered forth in song

The visions of His waking sight, The thoughts that o'er His soul would throng,

Alone upon the hills at night;

What poet's loftiest ecstacies

*

Had stirred men with such rapturous

awe

As would those living words of His,
Calm utterance of what He saw!
All earth had on those accents hung,
All ages with their echoes rung.
But He came not alone to speak,-

He came to live, He came to die:
Living, a long lost race to seek;

Dying, to raise the fallen high. He came, Himself the living Word,

The Godhead in His person shone; But few and poor were those who heard, And wrote His words when He was

gone:

Words children to their hearts can clasp,
Yet angels cannot wholly grasp.

But where those simple words were flung,
Like raindrops on the parched green,
A living race of poets sprung,

Who dwelt among the things unseen;
Who loved the fallen, sought the lost,
Yet saw beneath time's masks and

shrouds ;

Whose life was one pure holocaust,

Death but a breaking in the clouds: His Volume as the world was broad, His Poem was the Church of God.

THE GOSPEL IN THE LORD'S SUPPER.

No Gospel like this Feast

Spread for Thy Church by Thee;

Nor prophet nor evangelist
Preach the glad news so free.
Picture and Parable!

All Truth and Love Divine,

In one bright point made visible,
Hence on the heart they shine.

All our Redemption cost,

All our Redemption won;
All it has won for us, the lost,
All it cost Thee, the Son.

Thine was the bitter price,-
Ours is the free gift given;
Thine was the blood of sacrifice,-
Ours is the wine of heaven.

* From "The Women of the Gospels, The Three Wakings, and other Verses." New Edition, with Additions. London: T. Nelson & Sons.

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"It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Is thy cruse of comfort failing? rise and share it with another,
And through all the years of famine it shall serve thee and thy brother;

Love Divine will fill thy store-house, or thy handful still renew;
Scanty fare for one will often make a royal feast for two.

For the heart grows rich in giving; all its wealth is living grain;
Seeds, which mildew in the garner, scattered, fill with gold the plain.
Is thy burden hard and heavy? do thy steps drag wearily?
Help to bear thy brother's burden; God will bear both it and thee.
Numb and weary on the mountains, wouldst thou sleep amidst the snow?
Chafe that frozen form beside thee, and together both shall glow.

Art thou stricken in life's battle? Many wounded round thee moan;
Lavish on their wounds thy balsams, and that balm shall heal thine own.
Is the heart a well left empty? None but God its void can fill;
Nothing but a ceaseless Fountain can its ceaseless longings still.
Is the heart a living power? self-entwined, its strength sinks low;
It can only live in loving, and by serving love will grow.

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and these counties afforded the greatest facilities for escape whenever danger was imminent. Many persons who were either natives of these counties, or ministers in them, at various times availed themselves of the protection which Holland afforded, and fled thither that they might enjoy what their own country denied them-"freedom to worship God;" and thence, when opportunity presented itself, they returned to these shores, and planted the Churches which still exist amongst us.

But Holland was the refuge, not the birthplace of Congregationalism. Robert Browne, who in these latter days was the first to revive its distinctive principle, was a beneficed clergyman in Norwich. He unhappily held, in connexion with that principle, many extravagancies which tended greatly to discredit it in the estimation of the Puritans of his time; but, notwithstanding this, his opinions spread and took hold of the hearts and consciences of many, especially in the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmunds. There, in 1583, John Copping and Elias Thacker were executed, for no other crime than for spreading certain books which had been written by Robert Browne against the Common Prayer, and which, it was asserted, "undermined the constitution of the Church by acknowledging her Majesty's supremacy in civil causes only." Elizabeth shed the blood of sectaries, but," as an historian* has stated, "the victims were eccentric unrecognized fanatics, not members of the great Puritan community." These unrecognized fanatics were the protomartyrs of Congregationalism. Ames, Robinson, Goodwin, Bridge, Phillip, and Ward were all connected with this portion of the kingdom, and they were among the true restorers of the principle of Congregationalism freed from the extravagancies of Browne.

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*The Continuator of Sir J. Macintosh, Vol. III. p. 287.

Dr. Ames, to whom Robinson was indebted for various modifications of his system, was born at Ipswich. His brother-in-law, John Phillip, was driven to America from his rectory of Wrentham, in 1638, by Bishop Wren, but returned at the commencement of the civil war, and became the first pastor of any Congregational Church in this county. He was a member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and known as an "independent man" there.

II. THE SEVEN CHURCHES.

It is clearly ascertained that seven Congregational Churches were formed in Suffolk between 1640 and 1660, viz. -at Bury, Wrentham, Walpole, Sudbury, Woodbridge, Beccles, and Wattesfield. The old Church books, belonging to five of them, are still in existence, and from these records a very clear account can be obtained of the circumstances under which they originated.

BURY ST. EDMUNDS was a true separatist Church. It thoroughly abjured the Church of England, as appears by' the following extract from its Church book:

"Be it known unto all the saints of Sion that we being convinced in conscience of the evil of the Church of England; and being fully separated

not only from them, but also from those who communicate with them publicly or privately; resolve, by the grace of God, not to return unto their vain inventions, their human devices, their abominable idolatries or superstitious high places, which were built and dedicated to idolatry. And we ... . . covenant to become a peculiar temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in, an entire spouse of Jesus Christ, our Lord of glory. . . and so to walk in all his ways, so far as he hath revealed unto us, or shall reveal hereafter."

This covenant was written and signed in August, 1646; and it is evident from the whole tenor of it that the spirit of Robert Browne survived the martyrdom of his disciples at Bury, and still lingered in its neighbourhood. For some

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time they "maintained a minister at their private charge," and hired the Shire House, at a great rent," for their meeting-place; but the Church had no pastor till January, 1655-6, when Mr. Thomas Taylor was chosen, and ordained to that office.

WRENTHAM was from the first a Church of another type, not separatist but reformed. Its pastor was at the same time rector of the parish, and had been so for forty years: its place of meeting was the parish church. John Phillip had imbibed his Congregational principles from his famous brother-in-law, Dr. Ames, in earlier life; those principles had been confirmed in America, whither he had fled from the wrath of Bishop Wren; they had been professed in the Westminster Assembly, on his return from banishment, and then having long conducted the affairs of his church in harmony with them they were embodied by him on the first day of February, 1649-50, in a Congregational Church. The spirit in which the brethren acted will be understood from the following extract from the Church book:

"The worke, which now wee have in hand, we desire may be conceived [of] but as y reforming of o'selves according to that Church estate, the patterne whereof is set before us in the words of Ct. according to y measure of of enlightening therein. This to provent misconstructions of meddling with, or censuring any Churches by of course, the grounds whereof we doe shewe."

Thus it will be seen that they did not repudiate their former Church state, but simply reformed themselves by Scripture rule as they understood it; and without censuring others pursued what appeared to them to be the more excellent way. Mr. Phillip was the 'pastor" of this Church, and William Ames, M.A., son of Dr. Ames, was its "teacher."

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WALPOLE was a gathered Church: it "set down in Gospel order" at Cookley, on the 21st June, 1649, and Mr. John

Manning appears to have been its first pastor. This Church was in all probability at first migratory, meeting at Cookley and Walpole alternately; but, when it became necessary to build a meeting - house, fixed its location at Walpole. The original building is still in existence, and in use, and is a peculiarly interesting monument and memorial of the past. Its early records are lost.

SUDBURY possesses no historical account of the formation of the Church there; but in 1651 Mr. Crossman was its pastor; he continued in this office at the period of the Savoy Conference. He was at the same time incumbent of Little Henny, near Sudbury, but in the county of Essex, the Church of which was in ruins; from this living he was ejected in 1662, but he afterwards conformed, and in 1683 was rewarded with the Deanery of Bristol. He was succeeded in the pastorate of this Church by Mr. Samuel Petto, who had been ejected from St. Cross, Southelmham.

WOODBRIDGE. "On the 18th day of the seventh month, 1651, several serious Christians in and about Woodbridge were associated and framed into a visible Church for Christ according to the Congregational way and order," and entered into a 66 covenant," the terms of which

are on record.

Mr. Frederic Woodall was their first pastor; a man of learning, ability and piety, a strict Independent, zealous for the fifth monarchy, and a considerable sufferer after his ejectment" in 1662.

BECCLES. On the 6th day of July, 1652, nine persons "joyned in covenant togither under y visible Regiment of Christ, according to ye Gospell;" and this union was publicly ratified in the presence of "messengers" from Norwich and Yarmouth, on the 23rd of the same month.

On July 29, 1653, "a pastor was chosen," whose name is not given; but though they had chosen a pastor they were for some time in an unsettled state, and the Church book notices

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