were not so serious, to hear Mr. Bates, while retaining nothing in his Christianity but a very small portion of Bible Christianity, charging the preachers of the day with giving short weight and measure!" His "weight and measure are so short that you can scarcely recognize the article at all. His real complaint is that we add immensely to the "weight and measure" which please his taste. But the question remains whether what he rejects be not, notwithstanding his rejection of it, a part of the genuine article-whether, in fact, his version of Christianity be not a bastard spurious thing. This engineer's explanation of the absence of working-men from Christian churches is just one of those which a little cross-examination would utterly destroy. The working-men, he says, do not want dogmas or "such stuff," to use his expression. "They will have no more of it." But, Mr. Bates, there are places of worship where "dogmas" are not taught, where they are mentioned only to be denounced, where the weight and measure" are according to your own heart. Do the working-men who crave for what you call something "practical and useful" crowd to these places, and "help them with all their might?" On the contrary, is it not a fact that of the working-men who do go to a place of worship those who attend Unitarian places are so few that a child might count them? and is it not likewise a fact that the working-men who listen Sunday after Sunday to the earnest preaching of the very dogmas you repudiate may be counted by tens of thousands? That you and individuals of your class here and there do object to Evangelical doctrines (for that is my reading of your word "dogmas") it is not necessary to deny. But you have no right to personate the workingmen of England, and say that they are one with you in this, and will therefore not go where these doctrines are taught. Facts, those stubborn things, are against you. The "stuff" which you reject is the only "stuff" that exercises a religious influence to any material extent over the working-classes. Your version and "measure" of Christianity they will scorn as an imposition on their common sense so long as they can read their Bible, and believe that it is the word of God. To Mr. Wynn (Plasterer) I should like to say a few words; but my limited space requires that they be very few. Mr. Wynn assured us gravely that "he is not an infidel to anything that appears to him to be true!" But I venture to say that he is an infidel to a great deal to which the working-classes in the mass are not infidels; and the main reason which he gave for the absence of working-men from the house of God operates, I believe, to but a small extent-and where it does operate it is often an excuse rather than the true reason. "The Protestant says one thing -the Roman Catholic another. Moses says one thing-Professor Huxley says another. Whom are we to believe?" Painful as are the difficulties in the way of an answer to the question, 'What is truth?" they do not appear to have left you, Mr. Wynn, in any uncertainty. You have formed your opinions very positively, whether very correctly or not. You are evidently prepared to turn away from Protestant and Catholic alike. You do not hesitate to swear by Professor Huxley, come what will of Moses. Why should not other working-men search and judge for themselves likewise? In politics, my Lord Russell says one thing, my Lord Derby says another. Mr. Gladstone represents one political principle, Mr. Disraeli another. But you, working-men, do not stumble over those differences, and say you do not know what to believe. Now, only let there be the same earnestness and full purpose of heart in those inquiries which concern God and eternity, and, with God's own help, you will be able to "prove all things, and to hold fast that which is good." The best answers which were given to the reasons or excuses of workingmen for not attending places of worship were those of Mr George Potter, whose name is so well known in connection with trades' unions, and of Mr. G. M. McCree, the St. Giles's missionary. Mr. Potter did not hesitate to complain that the sympathies of ministers, with but few exceptions, are, as he thinks, generally with the employers, and seldom with the employed, in the contests with which the public is so well acquainted. But the whole question of trades' unions and their action is covered with an obscurity through which but few can penetrate; and, I believe, I am right in saying that the "sympathies " of Christian ministers, at least those of them of whom I have most knowledge, are with freedom and equity, on which ever side of the contest these may be. Mr. Potter did not fail, at the same time, to say that, while there are "minor causes," "the great cause why workingmen did not attend religious places of worship was carelessness and indifference. They did not reject the Gospel as a rule, they only neglected it, though in both cases it was fatal to them." Would that the artizans of London but listened to the counsels of a leader so respected and trusted by them! the custom to take what was said against religion very much for granted. Again, we ought to make sure that our objections were honest. When a man who objected to go to a place of worship was found to be intelligent, conscientious, and high-minded in his own life, his objections were worth listening to; but, if he was a profane man, or intemperate, or adulterous, we ought to look under the objection at the man himself, and ask whether it was not his vice, and not his conscientious objections, which kept him from the house of the Lord. No doubt there were cases of conscientious objection, but, in thousands and tens of thousands of cases it was something else which actuated these men. Further, it ought to be noticed whether the objection was a fair one. If a person said he did not go to a place of worship because he could not get a comfortable seat, he might be asked, 'Do you always get a comfortable seat in a public-house? Do you always get a comfortable seat at a theatre? Do you always get a comfortable seat in a thirdclass carriage on a Sunday night in coming from Brighton?' Yet, in the house of God, they wanted to sit upon velvet and fine cushions. Was it a fair objection to make? If a man said, · I do not go to the house of the Lord because I do not find that you ministers are remarkably scientific men,' he might be asked, 'If he was a remarkably scientific man himself?' Many persons seemed to think that the statements of scientific men were to be taken exactly as perfect truth, but where was the science of fifty years ago, or even of ten years ago? Scientific theories which were put in antagonism to the Divine Word when he was a lad were now admitted, even by sceptical lecturers and by their very propounders, to have been baseless and false. Some of the the geologists had, however, been Christian men. What was Dr. Pye Smith, or Hugh Miller, or Dr. Hitch The reply of Mr. McCree to various classes of objections was perfect in its way. The following is the best report of it which I have seen, and, abridged and indirect as it is, I commend it most earnestly to those of you who are not content to screen yourselves behind excuses, but wish to know and to do what is right:-"The objections raised to religious institutions ought, in the first place, to be intelligent. It was a serious thing for a man to adopt objections without thoroughly understanding them, and ascertaining whether they were true or false. He thought it was cock? The most thoughtful, the broadest-minded, the sublimest men in connection with science were those who believed in the Divine origin of Christianity. He had been amazed to hear a working-man say that afternoon that he and his fellow-workmen could discover no difference between a converted workman and any other. Let that person read Methodist hiographies, or the life of such a man as Richard Weaver, and he would find that there was indeed a change; but there was such a thing as hypocrisy and pretended conversion, and then, of course, it could not be expected that there would be any real sanctification of life." In conclusion, I commend the words of the Rev. Edward White, with whom the Conference originated, to the consideration of those who have the spiritual welfare of the working-classes at heart, but without pledging myself to an unqualified acceptance of his verdict on the contest between capital and labour:"It must be acknowledged to be a good end to pursue, to try to bring all orders of men together once a week to worship God and to learn the ways of righteousness; but this you will never do, so long as the church-going classes are the supporters of political monopoly. This political monopoly is the chief stumbling-block in the way of the educated artizans; and I know that it is the opinion of some of our foremost statesmen that an amendment in this direction would be followed by good consequences in the religious direction also. Much also has been said of the behaviour of the church-going people towards work. ing men who come to church, and too much can scarcely be said. If nothing else were to come from this Conference than a lesson to the middle classes on the value of a hearty shake of the handand of a real brotherly look of kindness and sympathy from them to those who toil with their hands for their living, no small good would have come out of it. When wealth accumulates, there is a tendency to the division of classes, and the chasm at last becomes so wide that men grow impatient, and revolution follows. But Jesus Christ is not only the Mediator between heaven and earth, He is also the Mediator between class and class, and man and man. It is the object of Christianity to teach all classes to behave properly to each other-to teach employers to be just, and workmen to be conscientious, and all to shew a friendly spirit in social union. And when the church-going classes have learned to shew a really brotherly spirit towards those less fortunately placed, and not systematically to take a part with capital against labour, they will succeed in enlisting their sympathies, and not before." CONGREGATIONALISM IN BIRMINGHAM. By J. Bickerton Williams, Esq. PART SECOND-THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Ar the opening of this century the Cannon Street pulpit was vacant. Mr. Green was minister at Lombard Street, Mr. Edmonds at Bond Street, and Mr. Brewer at Carr's Lane. Mr. Brewer's growing popularity early necessitated the rebuilding of his Chapel, but no sooner had the new edifice been completed, and occupied for one Sabbath, than circumstances arose, which induced Mr. Brewer's resignation of the pastorate. About the same period, 1802, Mr. Morgan came to Cannon Street. PÆDOBAPTIST CHURCHES. LIVERY STREET CHAPEL. A large number of Carr's Lane Church and congregation withdrew with Mr. Brewer, and established themselves as a separate society, under his ministry, in an amphitheatre, or ridingschool, in Livery Street. This building had been previously diverted from profane to sacred purposes by the congregations of the Old and New MeetingHouses, who occupied it for worship during the re-erection of their Chapels destroyed in the riots of 1791. It formed the home of Mr. Brewer's new congregation till their removal to Steelhouse Lane, in 1818, and was afterwards continued as a Congregational place of worship, under various pastorates, until the completion of Highbury Chapel, in 1845. It has since been taken down. EBENEZER CHAPEL, STEELHOUSE LANE, was erected for Mr. Brewer, and its foundation-stone laid by him in 1816. "Most probably," said he, to those assembled on that occasion, "when you meet again for the purpose of opening the Chapel you may have to walk over my sleeping dust." And so it He died before the completion of the building, and was buried in the area at its front. Mr. East became the minister in his stead. During his pastorate, and largely under his influence, Spring Hill College was founded, and endowed by three wealthy was. members of his Church-Mrs. Glover, Miss Mansfield, and Mr. George Storer Mansfield. Among the most distinguished of Mr. East's successors was the lamented Robert Alfred Vaughan. The present pastor, Rev. S. Pearson, M.A., has very recently entered on his duties. LEGGE STREET CHAPEL was opened in 1826, and by its various agencies, and especially its Day and Sunday-schools, has diffused truth and education through a thickly populated VOL. III.-NEW SERIES. district, principally occupied by the working-classes. SALTLEY ROAD CHAPEL was founded by an Episcopalian, in the year 1825; and an abridgment of the Liturgy of the Church of England was for a while used in its services. That, however, has been long dispensed with. The congregation and Church have been greatly increased and consolidated of late, under the lay-pastorate of Mr. Ingall, who successfully combines his ministry with the duties of an arduous profession. The premises have already, during his pastorate, been enlarged to the utmost available extent, and the further enlargement now required can only be accomplished by an entirely new structure. HIGHBURY CHAPEL, GRAHAM STREET, was built by the congregation of the Rev. James Alsop. He and they removed to it from Livery Street, in 1845. Three pastorates intervened after Mr. Alsop's before Mr. Callaway's commenced. Mr. Callaway has been eminently successful in settling and increasing the congregation and Church, and giving efficiency to their various institutions. em The preceding notices have been thus introduced without regard to chronological arrangement, as bracing the advances effected during the first forty-five years of the century, otherwise than by the direct origination or promotion of the Church in Carr's Lane, and as clearing the way for a consecutive account of that Church, and the various extensions initiated and for a time wholly or partially maintained as its own institutions. It is impossible to conceal the fact, that very little sympathy or co-operation prevailed among the Churches during this period. Not only did each act individually, instead of collectively, but also upon a centralizing rather than K an expansive principle. Happily, a better state of things has subsequently ensued, and been the means of effecting the more important progress of later years. CARR'S LANE. Soon after Mr. Brewer's removal to Livery Street, in 1802, the brief ministry of Mr. Berry alone intervening, the Rev. J. A. James commenced that memorable pastorate, which, extending over fifty-four years of ever increasing usefulness and honour, closed only with his life in 1859. Nothing more need be stated in reference to this pastorate than that Mr. James came to a Church of fifty members, and raised it to a thousand; and to a congregation of 150, and increased it to 1,800 or 2,000, and maintained these enlarged numbers for many years and to the end, in a state of high Christian efficiency, liberality, and peace. The increase of numbers necessitated increase of accommodation. The old premises, having been made as commodious as possible in 1812, were taken down in 1819 to make way for the present edifice. The former place would accommodate 800, the present was designed for 2,000. Perhaps there is no Chapel in the country, or in the world, around which so many high and sacred associations have so long gathered as around this. The earliest evangelistic efforts of the Church were directed to the neighbouring villages, rather than the town, though the latter soon obtained attention. Chapels were, from time to time, built or provided at Smethwick, Yardley, Minworth, and Great Barr, and surburban and town extensions planted at Lozells, Garrison Lane, Palmer Street, and Bordesley Street. Provision was also made for boatmen, in a small Chapel near the canal. The present pastor of the Church, the Rev. R. W. Dale, M.A., became Mr. James's assistant in 1853, and colleague in 1854. LOZELLS CHAPEL, the earliest suburban extension, was opened in 1839, having been erected by the Carr's Lane congregation, on land given by the late Mr. Benjamin Millichamp, a name to be ever honoured in connection with this place. During the pastorates of Mr. Baker, Mr. Cuttle, and Mr. Miller, more than one enlargement was effected; but it remained for Mr. Feaston, the present pastor, to accomplish and to fill a new and much more commodious structure, on an adjacent site. Since the opening of the new Chapel, in 1863, the old one has been devoted to school purposes. PALMER STREET CHAPEL was opened as a school and preachingstation in 1845, in lieu of an earlier erection of inadequate size in Garrison Lane. A Church was formed in 1860, under the pastorate of Mr. Derrington, the Church at Carr's Lane providing the salary of the pastor. He has since been succeeded by a lay-pastor, whose ministry is very efficiently conducted in conjunction with the pursuits of business. There are about 130 members in fellowship, and the Carr's Lane Church has now to provide only £30 per annum, the Church and congregation on the spot raising about £160 for the current year. The Chapel was enlarged by the erection of galleries in 1864. BORDESLEY STREET CHAPEL was also occupied from 1845 to 1860 as a school and mission-station. In 1860, a Church was formed, and Mr. Carter. who had previously ministered there, became its pastor. The Church at Carr's Lane still provides the salary of the pastor. There are about 100 members in fellowship. GOOCH STREET CHAPEL was obtained from the Countess of Huntingdon's Association in 1861, and opened by the Carr's Lane Church as |