the present one, in the interest of the truth and for the defence of the faith itself." It was little wonder that men of Archdeacon Denison's stamp lost their breath in listening to the proposal of such sweeping measures. In describing the discussion which ensued upon Lord Lyttleton's paper, one who was present says: "It was infinitely amusing, and nothing was said of which any sensible Nonconformist could reasonably complain. There was really very little knowledge of the profounder moral and spiritual reasons which render it impossible for us to enter the English Church; but it was very evident that the men who spoke had been examining the phenomena of Nonconformity with a curious eye, and honestly wanted to understand it. They all spoke with good temper; they were guilty of no discourtesy to us; and the audience listened patiently and respectfully even when things were said about us which must have made many a Churchman's ears tingle." As might have been expected the discussion ended in no resolution, although it was moved and seconded that the admission of Nonconformists to the Church should be referred to a committee.

The meeting of working men was one of the most interesting features of the Congress. Upwards of two thousand operatives assembled, and the speech of the Bishop of Oxford was perhaps one of the most remarkable which that prelate has ever delivered. After speaking upon the importance of the Church of Christ keeping alive the brotherhood of man, especially amid the teeming multitudes which were gathered together in the large centres of human industry, he

said: "I think the clergy have been stiff and unsympathizing very often in times past. They have rather fled from the face of the multitude of their fellow citizens into coteries, and into the congenial society of those who would echo back in sighs the utterances which they had made; and they have fled to a certain degree from the conflict Christ ordained for them with the thoughts of men, the doubts of men, the difficulties of men, and the sins of men. I confess it for myself and for my brethren, and we all feel it. There has come a new spirit among us, a desire to spend ourselves for Christ and to labour among you. I believe that I am speaking the opinion of the great mass of my clerical brethren when I say that we don't want fine chapels, filled with perfumed handkerchiefs, but we want great churches filled with working men. Well then, I ask you to help us, help us; help us to make these blessings yours and ours; let the time past suffice for the wretched jealousies of conflicting sects. If any man thinks that by adding over and above to that which the Church of England has instituted, counsels of perfection, such as those which, I believe firmly, John Wesley intended to institute, do not let us of the Church find fault with them, but let us rather adopt them. into the common bosom of a living Christianity, and bid them God speed. I do verily believe that the great religious differences which now divide and weaken us exist more upon the memory of past evils than upon a present necessity; and I believe that if Churchmen and Dissenters would unite together to exalt the one name of Christ, and for their love of that name seek heartily and thoroughly for

brotherly communion in one common Church, England might have it, and that having it, she might be, first in things spiritual and then in things material, more than a match for the divided world around her."

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Upon the question of "hindrances to Church progress,' there various opinions expressed. speaker referred to "disunion among the clergy," another to "long, dull, cold, learned sermons." Archdeacon Denison thought the greatest hindrance was that the Church was represented by many of her sons as not so much the Church of the affirmation of truth, as the negation of error. The Earl of Harrowby said there was a want of sympathy on the part of the clergy towards the laity, and an unwillingness to admit them as a portion of the Church system. The noble Earl's son, Viscount Sandon, delivered a most outspoken address upon the subject. He believed the great hindrance to Church extension was the growth of what he might broadly call a priestly feeling. "During the last ten years,” he said, "one has observed more and more, even among men of the evangelical and moderate party, a steady, quiet, and stealthy growth— though without guile-of the feeling that the clergy are of a priestly order. I use the word priestly feeling in the commcn sense in which it is used in

English literature. It has been seen in all countries and in all ages in which the religious teachers of the people have endeavoured to secure for themselves a position of supreme power and control. And what do you suppose it leads to ? And why is there any objection to it in this country of England? We believe that that feeling is the parent of serious

evils. We believe that it leads to the decline and the gradual extinction of learning among the clergy. We believe it leads to the inordinate multiplication and the burdensome infliction of rites and ceremonies. We believe that when the temporal power will assist, it leads to the gradual extinction of all who differ from the priestly body. We believe it leads to the doling out of extracts from the Sacred Books, in opposition to the principles of throwing them open to the gaze of the whole people. We believe that the priestly idea leads to the establishment of another master in every household, by every hearth, in the place of the husband and the father. We believe, and all history bears us out in the belief, that this priestly feeling ends, lastly, in raising up and establishing a human, artificial barrier between man and his God."

The last meeting of the Congress was characterized by a remarkable speech from Mr. Beresford Hope. He said: " They all came there knowing that there was a dark, an anxious time coming, and whether the powers of earth be with them or against them, whatever might betide, they knew there was one great, good institution, the gift of God to man, the responsibility of man to God, the teacher, the consoler, the guide, the civilizer of the land, the great old Church of England left them; and God helping them, in life or death, they would fight for her, they would work for her, they would sacrifice everything but honour, truth, and conscience for her; and if some evil day came, they would pray Almighty God that they might die for her, if need be. They had seen that great Church-not a Church confined within the four seas-not the Church

merely by Act of Parliament-but with her foundations on the Holy Hills, and not upon the broad seal of England. The bishops of Scotland and the colonies taught them that. They had learnt another lesson, too, from the Congress. Time after time they had seen God-fearing men, fresh and racy, inspired by a deep sense of duty -bishops of the Church of the Commonwealth which spoke our language, though they had not our Government and policy of those great States on

the other side of the Atlantic, which for a few years had been disturbed by the saddest arbitrament that States could come to-at the Congress, to teach the Church at home what the Bible and the Common Prayer-book might do in a Church not national, without Act of Parliament, without endowment, and without any State aid."

The Liberation Society could hardly desire a more vigorous associate or more spirited eloquence.

THE AUTUMNAL MEETINGS OF THE first public service in connection with the late gatherings in Manchester was held in Cavendish Chapel, on the evening of Monday, October 7th, when a sermon was preached by the Rev. David Thomas, M.A., of Bristol, on Hebrew xii. 2-4. The expression, "author and finisher of faith," was read by the preacher, "leader and perfector of faith," and was regarded by him, equally with the drift of the whole passage, as having reference to the example of Christ as the One in whom the faith, instanced and illustrated in the preceding chapter, reached its perfection. It must not be forgotten that Christ had a human experience, and that among other experiences he exercised faith in His Father. This faith was tried:-1. In the loneliness and want of sympathy which he experienced in His work. 2. In the apparent want of success that attended His work. 3. In the shame and ignominy of His death. Mr. Thomas discoursed on these topics for an hour and twenty minutes. Words of eulogy would be out of harmony with the spirit of the discourse, and we restrain our pen. The ministers present thanked God to have their hearts searched and probed as they seldom are, and many

VOL III.-NEW SERIES.

THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION. felt as if they must go home to begin a new life.

On Tuesday morning the ministers and delegates assembled in Grosvenor Street Chapel to the number of nearly seven hundred, the Rev. J. R. Campbell, D.D., of Bradford, in the chair. The chairman's reference to recent bereavement-the death of his firstborn on the ground of which he claimed the indulgence of his brethren, awakened much sympathy. Of the discourse which followed on "Our Life in Christ," no abstract such as we have room for could give a correct idea. One passage, in which he very aptly remarked on a certain popular description of Congregationalism, we quote:Our individuality and independence as churches are so clearly defined and are, by nature and habit, so active and jealous, there is no fear of any infringement of them. And it may surely be expected that the energy nursed in this freedom will have extraordinary results when spontaneously brought into combined operation. Our 'rope of sand'the similitude by which our ecclesiastical critics describe the brittleness and disintegration of our fellowship-has stood a wonderful amount of straining in these centuries of stormy conflict.

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It has held our vessel to its moorings. By means of it we have weathered gales which drove others from their boasted anchorage, and for the time shipwrecked them. We are not persuaded that, in respect of unity and combination, our Christian brotherhood finds aught to envy in a distracted Popery, in an Episcopacy, binding opposites and antipathies into contiguity, but not welding them into cohesion; or in the well-compacted system of Presbytery, which, even in times quite modern, has divided itself into many sects, and which, even in this hour, when commendably seeking the reunion of these disjected members, must content itself with existing in the antagonist forms of bond and free. It is time that we honoured our system as we know it, and as it has honoured itself in the absence of any special advantage and encouragement at any part of its career. Let us not treat it as if the nickname given by its opposers were the welcomed distinction of its friends."

A considerable part of this morning's sitting was occupied by the reading and consideration of a paper by the Rev. John Stoughton on

"CONGREGATIONAL REFORM, ESPECIALLY

IN REFERENCE TO THE CONDITION OF
OUR SMALLER CHURCHES."

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we

"Look at the state of our small Churches," Mr. Stoughton said ; can point here and there to two or three distinct ones existing in a population of a few thousands where, if all the Congregationalists were united together, they would not more than fill a moderately-sized chapel. There are many distinct " interests," as they are called. The consequences often are unpleasant rivalries, feelings of alienation, and the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of effective union for missionary purposes. Moreover, each Church is so feeble that it cannot maintain its own position with honour or credit. Church meet

ings are necessarily so small, the members are so few, so uninfluential, and so unaccustomed to the management of business, that there is much danger of folly in their proceedings. Persons fit for deacons are not to be found, and, what is no small evil, the pastor cannot secure a sufficient stipend. Two or three ministers are engaged to execute pastoral work which could very well be done by a single individual, whilst the entire revenues divided amongst them would scarcely suffice to maintain one man with a considerable family."

The conclusion of Mr. Stoughton's paper will give a good idea of his aims:

"I. One very important thing is to form a public opinion on the subject, and by common consent to brand the mischief of needless separations, and to illuminate and emblazon the beauty and blessedness of union. And here let me add, schism is a sin-Protestant Nonconformity, we believe, is not schism; but we believe also that there may be not a little of schism amongst Protestant Nonconformists. Now, a separation proceeding on no doctrinal or ecclesiastical grounds, nor from the pressure of numbers, but only from personal disputes and party feeling, or from some miserable misunderstanding, such a separation is schism; it is a rent in the Church, a violation of the law of love, and a grief to the spirit of Christ. Sometimes, it is said, in palliation of things of this kind, There is room for another interest,' 'The division will be overruled for good.' Pray never again talk so. It encourages a great evil, against which we ought to form and set in array strong public opinion; for through our winking at these divisions, we allow not only weak, but diseased and fretful churches to come into being, churches which retain long years afterwards the taints of their dishonourable birth.

"II. We should use all the moral influence we possess in discouraging

the admission to the pastoral office of men who are not well qualified for the work. Small churches create a demand for men who really are not fitted for permanent pastoral duty, and the encouragement given to such men reacts upon the evil of which we have complained. The Congregational pastorate, the oversight, and the constant instruction of an intelligent community, the folding and the feeding of souls, year after year, is an arduous employment, and no man is fit for it who does not so regard it. Men may be suited for being itinerating preachers who are not suited for being bishops in the New Testament signification of the term. We ought to discourage the appointment to the pastorate of men who have not in some way or other been thoroughly trained for the important station which they are to occupy. The question respecting the pastor is implicated in that relating to the Church, and we cannot promote the improvement of the latter without maintaining on a high level the character of the former.

"III. In small towns, where more than one church exists, let the separate communities meet together to consider the subject brought before you to-day. Let them inquire whether union be not possible as well as desirable. Let them ponder the whole question in the presence of God, and with an earnest desire for His guidance. Let there be patient thought and frequent conversation in reference to the improvement of their affairs, and if the end we so much desire cannot be at once secured let some steps toward it be taken.

"IV. In rural districts let the affiliation of small congregations to some central church be urged by all who coincide generally in the views we have expressed. Let ministers and deacons of churches possessing influence take up the matter with a determination not to suffer it to rest, whatever may be the practical difficulties connected with it. Let Associations keep the question

before them at their meetings, and strive, in every possible way, to promote the object we propose.

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V. The sustentation of weak churches, where circumstances necessitate their distinct establishment, should be regarded as the duty of neighbouring stronger ones. It has been maintained that where churches have a right to exist they have duties to perform. The maxim may be taken the other way-that where certain duties need to be discharged in some destitute district by a Congregational Church, there such a church has a right to exist; and if, in the providence of God, it has not internal resources sufficient for its support, it has a moral right to look for help from other communities more favourably circumstanced. the watchwords of this reform movement, then, be these three-Consolidation, Affiliation, Sustentation.

Let

"VI. The only definite practical measure which I would suggest for immediate adoption is the appointment of a committee to prepare an address, calling attention to the importance of uniting and supporting in harmony with Independent principles, the small Congregational bodies of our order existing in our towns and rural districts. The work before us is a great one, and ought to be commenced forthwith. It is one which must be accomplished some day or other, if ever Congregationalism is to take that place in the ecclesiastical life of England to which its authority, its history, and its adaption to our national welfare fully entitle it."

The important position held by small churches, especially in rural districts, was strongly maintained in the discussion which followed. "It is all very well," said Mr. D. Pratt, "to talk about not forming churches unless they can support their ministers. What will you do in those districts where Puseyism is rife, and Popery exists as much as in the Church of Rome? I