own house for married women, for young single women, for girls, and for boys. Last August she gave the younger ones a treat at her own expense and in her parlour. On the very day the Rector of S- called upon her, and told her that she had no · business to have children who came to his church and school, that she did not teach them in accordance with the Church Catechism, and that he forbade her giving the treat and continuing the classes. She was amazed at his impertinence, but answered him calmly and nobly. Afterwards she addressed a letter of astonishment, and protested against this un-English conduct, &c. This led to a correspondence in which the rector displayed a spirit of intolerance that quite surprised every one. I deemed it right to interfere, and many long letters passed. He threatened to turn out every child from the parish day-school who attended Mrs. J's classes. I will not weary you with quotations. The correspondence would make a goodsized pamphlet. I must say that at length he was compelled to withdraw his opposition, receive back the ex pelled children, and make some kind of apology. As the people were misinformed of what my letters contained, I read the copies out after the service one Sunday evening, after preaching on "Woe unto you, &c. Ye will not enter; neither suffer ye them that would enter," &c. Even this opposition has "turned out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel." ROMANIST OPPOSITION.-From the priests of Rome (whose name is "legion") at St. Edmund's College, one mile from P- —, we have deep, cunning, insidious opposition. Arch bishop Manning is down at the College about once a fortnight, and has suggested a new chapel in P for the use of the Romanists, but this they cannot effect, for there is no site to be had. The land is in the hands of one who will not allow them to build a chapel. The priests often come to the chapel where I am preaching, and listen awhile, then go away. In preaching on Jacob blessing Joseph and his sons, I remarked in passing, that the Douay Bible says, "Jacob adored the top of his staff." This the priests denied. Their denial and charge of falsely accusing them was brought to me, and in self-defence I stated from the pulpit, that if the priests would come to me with a Douay Bible, and prove me wrong, I would publicly apologize, and as a penalty we would give £10 to their sick poor. This is the only way to show the wavering what the priests and what Popery are. One day a priest said to me, "You have no authority in your Church, and none for your faith; indeed you have no Church and no faith." I said that we had the Word of the living God, and the Saviour, who is the only sure foundation. But," said he, "the Church of Rome is the only Church." "Then," said I, "the Bible cannot be true if the Church of Rome is." Ah, you Protestants," said he, " you get the Bible from the Church of Rome, and then you take that same Bible, in order to overthrow the Church that gave it to you." I insisted that Churches must be tested by Divine truth, not Divine truth by Churches. That the Word of God is above, in authority, all Churches. If said I, your traditions are Divine, how comes it that they contradict the Bible? 66 66 THE OLD BORN AGAIN. This last year I have been especially cheered by visitations to the sick and dying. At one of my out-stations an old woman between seventy and eighty was led to Jesus. She had attended the chapel for a long time, but for, the last three years she was unable to do so. She had no correct view, either of her own condition as a sinner or of the way of salvation. She was anxious to get to heaven, and told me again and again that she was praying and doing her best. For about eighteen months I endeavoured to set before her the ruin and the remedy. The Lord blessed the Word to her illumination, salvation, and comfort. At another station a hoary-headed man, bowed with years and sins, had been the subject of a wonderful change. He had spent much of his life among American freethinkers. Since his return his hostility to all that is Christian has often shown itself. I have often seen him reading the newspaper on the Sabbath. But the newspaper having been cast away, he began to attend the house of God, and sought conversation with his pious relatives and myself. Once he said to me, "It is too late; too late.” Christ, however, was constantly kept before him, and he was so changed that many said, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ?" A PROFLIGATE CONVERTED. A man who for years had been one of the most abandoned and profligate characters in the town came to hear me preach, VOL. III.-NEW SERIES. and during the sermon I saw he was weeping. I heard he was under deep convictions, and a few days after he sent for me to visit him, and I believe I shall never forget that interview, for the mental agony he endured was most distressing to witness. He told me the kind of life he had led, but until he heard me preach that sermon he had never felt himself a sinner, but since he had been truly wretched, and often his remorse and grief were so heavy that he could not bear them, and was obliged to go under a hedge to cry for mercy. For some time he "walked in darkness," but at length: he found peace and joy in believing. He is now a teacher in our Sabbathschool, and is leading a consistent life and giving undoubted evidence that he is the subject of genuine conversion. At first he endured much persecution, of which the following incident will convey some idea:-While out on his employer's business the men who accompanied him stopped at an alehouse, and wished him to go in and drink with them, but he positively refused and remained in the cart. One of his companions brought him a glass of ale, and begged him so earnestly to take it that he consented. A few minutes after he became giddy, and partly insensible, and fell down and lay at the bottom of the cart. These creatures took him to his master's stable, where they left him and went away, reporting that he was intoxicated, which was easily believed as this had been one of his besetting sins. EE He was unable to work for a day or two, and wherever he went he was called bad names, till at length the poor fellow was afraid to go out. For some time I was deeply anxious lest he might fall away, but by God's blessing and grace he remained firm. He has induced his wife and other members of his family to attend our chapel, and does what he can for his friends by giving them tracts. I trust he will hold on his way, and prove he is a brand plucked from the fire. CASES OF RELIGIOUS DECISION.Since our last report the number of members has increased, several of the accessions being direct instances of conversion. On the first Sabbath evening in January, 1866, I was led to preach a sermon to the young, from the words, "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth ?" This was owned of the Spirit to the decision of two individuals. The first is a woman between thirty and forty years of age, the mother of several children. The whole family, up to the time mentioned, lived in utter neglect of religion, of God, and their souls. From a feeling of curiosity this woman entered the chapel. The word was carried to her heart by the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit. Being led to see herself a sinner, only deserving eternal wrath, she applied to God for pardon, pleading the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. After a short interval she was enabled to lay hold of His promise, and to cast herself entirely on Him. She is now a most devoted Christian, evidencing by her consistent walk that she has passed from "death unto life." All her children now attend the Sabbath school. Her husband is a very resolute and determined man. Because of her love to Christ she has been much persecuted by him, but since of late he has been induced to attend the house of God several times, I trust that ere long he will be brought to the knowledge of the truth. 66 The second case is that of a young man who had always lived a respectable and moral life, and was depending on such for the salvation of his soul. By the foolishness of preaching" he has been led to see the worthlessness of all human merit, and to submit himself to the Lord Jesus, resting all his hopes for eternity on our Saviour's blood and righteousness. There is a remarkable principle of growth in him, and I believe he is specially adapted for the work of the ministry at home, or for mission work, to one of which he intends devoting himself as soon as circumstances will permit. He is a most useful Sabbath-school teacher, and is very acceptable as a Local preacher. Our week-night Bible class has been well attended during the winter, and two females in it have been brought to decide for Christ. Having been shown that an individual must either be for or against Christ, his friend or his foe, one of them subsequently said with great earnestness and sympathy, "Oh, sir, I felt while you were speaking that I could not be a foe to Jesus." She went home and consecrated herself at once to Him and His service. REACTION AGAINST RITUALISM.-The soil of this station is truly "stony ground" in many senses. The peasantry as a class are of the very poor, and have the lowest wages, and are singularly subservient to the gentry and parson. Education is sadly needed to elevate them, but for miles around we have nothing but National Schools to do this work. "The glorious Gospel of the blessed God," nevertheless, manifests its power in, their redemption. Ritualism, which more or less prevails in six villages around us, does not lay hold of the peasant mind, except to keep them in the old state of dead formalism, which is bad enough. In one village where the incumbent has pushed his Ritualism to the verge of Popery, there has been reaction against it. The church is nearly deserted, and we preach in a hired house, both on Sunday and week-day, to some forty hearers. Indeed, such is the determination of the people, and even the squire of the parish, that the clergyman is about to make an exchange elsewhere. At another village our success has not been the same. But the attendance improves, although the incumbent has in his hands £100 and other charities, which he gives away, paying the rents of the houses of the poor, and using every means to keep the population in his grasp. A small chapel that has never been conveyed to our denomination is, through the kindness of the proprietor, now about to be put in Trust, and also repaired, when we hope for still better things. We also preach in another dark village, FQThe congregations number about thirty. At these three villages I preach alternately on the Sabbath afternoon, and at other times the pulpit is occupied by our friends. lay THE WEEKLY OFFERING.-I am thankful to be able to report that during the past year the work of the very depressed and discouraging circumstances under which I entered upon the pastorate in January of last year, but my work has not been altogether in vain. We can now see a considerable increase in our congregations, persons who only came at first occasionally have now settled down amongst us, making the attendance more regular and permanent. Several members have also been added to the Church, whose walk and conversation since their union with us have been all we could desire. The people here feel deeply grateful to the Committee for their prompt and generous aid, without which they would, most likely, have continued in the low and shepherdless state in which they had been for several years. One great cause of this revived state of things has been, under God's blessing, the adoption and thorough working of the Weekly Offering. The committee never did a kinder or wiser thing than making this one condition on which they would help us with a grant. Our finances have never in the long history of the Church, so far as we can trace, been in so healthy and flourishing a condition. All debts have been paid, and the increased amount promised to myself has been pleasantly and easily raised. With two or three exceptions we all practise this Weekly Giving; minister, deacons, members, people all alike bringing their offerings into God's house and placing them in His treasury, thus finding privilege and profit in giving to the Son as well as in receiving from Him. It has helped the poor to cast into the treasury who never gave anything before, and at the same time has enabled those who did support the worship of God before, to do considerably more with greater ease and joy. We have found the advantage of the Weekly Offering system so great that I never fail to recommend it wherever I go, my conviction being that small Churches especially cannot adopt and work it confidingly and carefully without being gainers every way. OUR QUARTERLY OBITUARY. JOHN HEY PUGET, ESQ., OF TOTTERIDGE. MR. PUGET's father was originally principal in the bank of Puget and Bainbridge, and his mother a daughter of the Bishop of Raphoe. The latter was an eminently pious and devoted lady, who, during many years of widowhood at Totteridge, was a living example of every Christian virtue, and, in particular, of a generous and self-denying benevolence. The Congregational church and Manse at Totteridge may be taken as a sample of her munificence. The life of the late Mrs. Puget affords, moreover, a striking illustration of how the greatest permanent blessing may follow a single instance of entire consecration to God. Moving in fashionable circles from her youth, and "the observed of all observers," for the attractions of a personal beauty, which King William having once seen, did not forget in the last years of his life, Mrs. Puget, though noted for every estimable quality, does not appear to have undergone a saving change until after the death of her husband. But under the influences of Divine grace she became, not to mention less direct though more extended usefulness. under God the spring of spiritual life to her own family. Here we deny ourselves the pleasure of details, lest the public record of singular excellence and devotedness in high places should raise the blush of modesty on the faces of noble ladies, who happily yet survive their lamented brother. A very few links, however, connect the heroic and unwearied labours of Lord Radstock with the conversion of Mrs. Puget. But the best representative of the mother was presented in the son, whose recent death thousands will mourn. Mr. Puget came under the healthiest influences from childhood, not only at home in the closest union with his widowed mother, but also at a later period, under the superintendence of the teachers whom she selected for him. He was placed at first under the care of the Rev. B. Scott, a son of the well-known Commentator, and afterwards under that of Mr. Preston, a former vicar of Cheshunt, where he had, among his fellow students, the late Lord Macaulay, of whose prodigious memory and extraordinary attainments, even at that time, he ever retained the most vivid impression. Subsequently he entered and graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, contemporaneously with the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, and was wont throughout his life to speak in terms of profound admiration of Mr. Noel's University career, as exhibiting a devout and consistent piety in the midst of general contempt and ridicule. Leaving Cambridge, Mr. Puget for some years pursued a worldly and fashionable course of life, becoming a member of the Royal Yacht Club, and mingling in the gay society to which it introduced him. We are entirely ignorant as to the precise date of his conversion, but it was quickly followed, as in the instance of his mother, by the generous consecration of himself and his property to the cause of the Redeemer. One of his first acts was to place his Yacht at the service of |