Jutelligence. CATHEDRAL CHAPTERS. The Morning Chronicle states it to be the intention of the Government to issue a commission to inquire into the condition of Cathedral Chapters. Thanks to Mr. Whiston. THE MADIAIS. The deputation to the Grand Duke of Tuscany to request the liberation of the Madiais, who, as our readers are aware, have been sentenced to the galleys for five years for privately reading the Bible and Common-Prayer Book, was to have assembled at Genoa on the 23rd ult. It is expected that the several States will be represented by the following gentlemen :-Prussia-Count Albert de Pourtalis, late Prussian Ambassador at Constantinople. France-Count Agenor de Gasparin. England -Earl of Roden, Earl of Cavan, and Captain Trotter. The Netherlands-Count de St. George. Switzerland-Colonel Tronchin. THE BRITISH ANTI-STATE CHURCH ASSOCIATION Will commence its winter campaign, which should be an active one, by holding a service at the London Tavern a few days after the issue of our present number, November 11. SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION JUBILee. Meetings in promotion of this scheme-alluded to and briefly urged upon the attention of our readers in September-have been held during the past month at Surrey Chapel, at Manchester, and at the Tabernacle, Moorfields. At each of these meetings large, excited, and apparently earnest audiences have been ably addressed on the claims of Sunday-schools. At the meeting held at Surrey Chapel, Mr. J. H. Tresidder submitted a brief statement of the labours of the Union during the past fortynine years: 'It explained that the Sunday-school Union was formed in the school-room of Surrey Chapel, on the 13th July, 1803. It pursued its onward course for nine years without holding any public meeting in its behalf; at the end of this period the first meeting was held, which attracted great public attention to the institution; and, since that time, a large amount of success had attended its operations. The principles on which the Union was founded were eminently catholic; and on the same basis all its operations had been conducted up to the present time. Special reference was made to the labours of the committee, with a view to the improvement of periodical literature, which have been eminently successful; the three magazines published by the Union command a large sale. In the furnishing of libraries, the committee have selected more than 600 volumes as suitable, and, to encourage the habit of reading good books by the scholars, they have been supplied to schools upon recommendations of Unions, and recently at one-third of the retail price. In this way, 2,507 libraries have been placed in schools, and probably not less than 150,000 volumes have been put in circulation amongst the scholars and their friends. In addition to the large sums thus granted out of the funds of the Union, the committee have made 306 grants in aid of the expenses of erecting school-rooms, amounting to £6,819. The labours, moreover, of the Union in our colonies are rapidly increasing, and funds are wanted to make this department equal to the large demand now made consequent upon the large amount of emigration now going on.' DISTRIBUTION OF BIBLES BY THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. At a recent meeting of the members of the above Society, it was stated, that during the past year the Society had issued no fewer than one million one hundred and fifty-four thousand six hundred and forty-two Bibles and Testaments; and since the formation of the society, in 1804, 25,402,309 copies of the Sacred Scriptures, in 148 various languages, have been scattered by it over the face of the globe. CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. The Fourteenth Autumnal Session of this body was commenced at Bradford on October the 19th, and concluded on the 23rd. We are indebted for a knowledge of its proceedings principally to the report in the Patriot newspaper. The first day's session was opened by an address from Dr. Harris, on the requisites for ministerial efficiency. This address will be printed. It was followed by a short discussion on the subject, and by the reading of the commencement of a paper by the Rev. E. Jones, on the principles of Nonconformity. This paper was not proceeded with. At an evening meeting on the same day, Dr. Vaughan delivered an address on the history of the Congregational principle. Others following in support, defence, and explana tion of Congregationalism.-On the second day, the proceedings consisted chiefly of the appointment of a committee on ministers' salaries, to report to the Union in May next and the discussion and adoption of two resolutions, on the observance of the Sabbath, prompted by the circumstances in which the Sydenham Crystal Palace Company is now placed. The first resolution, proposed by the Rev. John Angell James, and seconded by Mr. Morley, expressed its high sense of the value of the Sabbath; protested against the intentions of the Crystal Palace Company; and called on all the friends of Sabbath observance, in the employment of all Christian means, to use their best endeavours to prevent' such intentions being carried into effect. Mr. Edward Baines then rose and proposed, as an addition to the above resolution, a sentence to the effect, that a memorial, embodying its sentiments, should be addressed to the Company, and that another memorial should be sent to the Queen, entreating her Majesty to withhold her royal sanction from that part of the charter which provides for the opening of the Crystal Palace on the Lord's Day.' This resolution, proposed by a Congregational Dissenter, for the adoption of a meeting of some of the most intelligent of Congregational gentlemen, calling for legislative interference and compulsion in religious matters, was adopted. Previous to adoption, however, Dr. Massie, the Rev. Henry Toller, and the Rev. Baldwin Brown, spoke in opposition to it. Other gentlemen also spoke, but on which side the reports fail to tell.-On the third day, the subjects of Chapel Extension,' the Dissenters' Marriages Act, and American Slavery, came up for discussion, on each of which resolutions were adopted-1st, in favour of a scheme for Chapel Extension under the auspices of the General Assembly-we mean Union; 2ndly, on certain defects in the Marriage Act; and 3rdly, protesting against American slavery. In this resolution, congratulations were offered to Mrs. Stowe for her Uncle Tom's Cabin,' but at the suggestion of the Rev. R. Macbeth, this was withdrawn. A resolution of thanks to the Rev. A. Reed and the Rev. Brewin Grant, for lectures delivered to the working classes, and one of sympathy with the Madiais, closed the business of this day.-On the morning of the fourth day a public meeting was held on behalf of the Congregational Board of Education, at which Mr. Morley entered into a detailed statement concerning the present very satisfactory position of the board and its operations. A subscription in behalf of the Homerton Training School, amounting to nearly 1,6007., was then made, and the proceedings of the Union terminated-Our readers will find some remarks on certain of its doings in our Monthly Retrospect.' MINISTERIAL REMOVALS. The following calls to church pastorates have been accepted:- BELTON.- The Rev. P. G. Johnson, late of Llandago. BRIGG.-The Rev. Richard Miles, late of Abbotsford, Canada East. RESIGNATION. The Rev. WILLIAM JAY, the venerable minister of Argyle church, Bath, has re'signed his pastorate, which he has held for more than sixty-two years On the occasion of the resignation being accepted, the following resolution was adopted by the church: That this church, in receiving the intended resignation, on the 30th of January next, of its revered and beloved pastor, devoutly acknowledges the goodness of God in permitting it the distinguished privilege of enjoying a ministry so faithful, valued, and eminently useful, for the lengthened period of sixty-three years; and, while it deeply sympathizes with him in his present affliction, prays with submission he may yet be restored occasionally to preach the " Gospel of the Grace of God," and that, when his labours shall close, an entrance may be "ministered unto him abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour." ་ That it also traces with gratitude to the same Divine source, the unanimity and peace which have hitherto marked its history; and, while it would seek to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," prays that the great Head of the Church may afford it wisdom and guidance in the appointment of a successor to the venerable William Jay.' NEW CHAPELS OPENED. CLAPHAM (Congregational church).-September 30th. FOUNDATION STONES LAID. KIMBOLTON (Union church).-October 13th. NORTHWICH (Congregational church).- October 6th. THE MONTHLY CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR. DECEMBER, 1852. The Power of the Pulpit. WHATEVER its warrant or its origin, the pulpit is, and has long been, an established institution in connexion with Christianity, and is recognised as one of the most powerful instruments by which the designs of Christianity are to be accomplished. By a vast multitude of Christians it is, no doubt, regarded as indispensable to the spread, or even the existence of their faith, and any proposition to suspend the functions or materially to modify the office of the preacher, is viewed with the utmost alarm. Indeed, by not a few it is held in estimation somewhat beyond its due, and to the neglect or depreciation of the other great purpose for which our weekly assemblies are convened-viz., worship and prayer. By common consent the ministerial office (which, as we shall see, includes more than preaching) is allowed to be the highest and most honourable which can be held by man amongst his fellow-men. In some communities, where the preacher is all but lost in the priest, he is looked at with veneration and awe; his touch has virtue in it to bless and sanctify; his words are as oracles of truth; his behests are as divinely sanctioned laws. In others, where no such extravagant reverence is felt, there is nevertheless a most singular halo of sacredness present to the eye, about the person of the minister. Even when you come to those bodies which altogether repudiate the notion of priesthood in its most harmless form, you find still the same preeminence accorded to the sacred office,' as it is often called. Nor are even those portions of the Church which distinctly repudiate the 'one man ministry,' and which seek to realize the equality and brotherhood of all, able to prevent the same kind of influence from VOL. II. Ꮓ Ꮓ surrounding the persons of those who, by their power to speak, and habit of thought, and inward impulse of utterance, become their recognised preachers. If a man in any of these various sects should forsake absolutely and entirely the work of a Christian teacher for that of a statesman, or any of less importance and note, it would be almost universally deemed a stepping down; perhaps a criminal thing; at all events, one demanding a very clear and strong necessity to be shown for the act before it can claim at all to be excused. Not a little curious is this jealousy in some quarters. The doctrine of once a priest always a priest,' is most earnestly disallowed and denied, and felt to be either an absurdity or an impiety, by those to whom we refer. And yet if one of their own ministers should happen to do what they would not scruple to do themselves, viz., marry a lady of property, or inherit a legacy, they begin most maliciously to predict that he will soon break a blood-vessel, or get an incurable sore throat. And should any misfortune of the kind happen to him afterwards, no amount of assurance or proof would convince them that it was other than an excuse for doing what, in their opinion, no circumstance short of paralysis or death would make it right for him to do. Now, believing, as we do, in the rightness and expediency of the institution (and for which faith we shall presently offer a reason or two), we are not altogether sorry that public opinion in the Christian world should have entertained so high an estimate of it. Although some forms of it are, no doubt, pernicious, and some absurd, on the whole it must have tended to health; and it cannot but have contributed to the stability and the present solidity of the institution itself. It will not be easy to uproot a thing so venerated; to disprove to the conviction of all the rightness of so "sacred" an office; nor with charges of abuse, or inefficiency, or effeteness, or inaptness, to overthrow it, so long as it can show such trophies of its power in the past, and lean upon such honours as the present so readily affords. There is one indirect result of the British pulpit which has not often been exhibited as a claim to honour and respect on its behalf, but which may most reasonably be so presented: it is the fact that it has been a centre of intellectual attraction and a power to quicken thoughtfulness in a vast number of minds, which, without that, would never have found their way into the circles of literature and thought, but who, when there, and without neglect of their other work, have done eminent service, and added not lightly to the national renown. With a view to the office of a Christian teacher, men have made efforts to attain education, which no merely literary consideration could have produced. In this way latent powers have found their true nourishment and their proper sphere, and as authors, or as orators on subjects of national or world-wide interest, their possessors have done most eminent service, and helped to give its character of intelligence to their nation and their age; whilst the fact that these men of thought and power have been Christian men, has prevented the disaster from befalling us of having a national literature utterly godless and irreligious, and a national advocacy of the cause of humanity based only upon some of the ever-shifting ephemeral expediencies of the age, and not upon the changeless principle of Christian religion-thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' If there be anything to be proud of in the history of British intelligence and literary achievement, we claim for the pulpit of our land the honour of having indirectly contributed more than any other single influence to that worthy source of national pride. It would be the sheerest folly to expect that such an institution, so revered by the mass of men, so liable, therefore, to abuse of various kinds to be made into a throne of self-glorification by some; or an engine of despotism by others; or a cloak of hypocrisy, and a mansion of selfishness by more; or a bed of laziness by others again-should pass unchallenged in every age, and present the strange anomaly of being a cherished institution without an assailant. If there were no other reason, many people would question its value, because other people so much revere it. The stragglers, who not merely dare to go out of the world's high road when it leads to the devil, but who always walk at the side and never with the vulgar crowd, be their path ever so right and good-these men would be sure to have a doubt or two, a stray arrow or two to stick into the world's idol. It ought to be expected, too, that each separate form of abuse would give rise to doubts, serious doubts, of its authority and expediency. Moreover, since it is of human material, if not of human device, like every other thing of the kind, it will want adapting and adjusting to the mutations of mankind, the ever-changing cycles of human development and progress. And when the time of change comes, and the contrast of new and old is very strong, and perhaps, through the infirmity of both, the contest betwixt them sharp, there are sure to be some who will point to the old and say-see, it is effete, it is going to pieces; and turning to the young, will warn them not to stick by a sinking ship.' There is always a class of people in the world whose philosophy is, that nothing will mend or change for the better, and who say, whenever you attempt a reformation-you had better break it up and throw it away.' From one or other, or it may be all of these sources, we are hearing mutterings and grumblings about the cessation of the power of the pulpit; its want of adaptation as an institution to the age; its unchristian character, and the like. It, therefore, behoves all who have any faith in it, as an ordination of Divine Providence, and an important agency in connexion with the gospel, to listen; to weigh; to admit, where truth is on the side of their opponents; to combat and argue where their case cannot be sustained. And, above all, it behoves those whose office and function is thus challenged to look well to themselves, that they afford no ground in their own conduct on which such charges may be based. Some may possibly deem it the misfortune of the Church, that Christianity lacks that divine prescription, and authoritative regulation of its externals and its agency, which so distinguished the dispensation which preceded it. We deem it the peculiar glory of Christianity not to have them. It marks it as spirit, and not letter. Having given the Truth, the Substance, having planted the Life, God trusts it to |
