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DATES AND SIGNATURES.-We find it necessary to remind some of our Correspondents that they should not only avoid scribbling and write plain, but some of them actually forget to sign their own names to their papers, and others omit the name of the place from which or of which they are writing. If they mean by so doing to pay a compliment to our shrewdness, we beg to decline the honour. Dates, places, and names, should always be given, and in plain writing. A Report of a baptism this month, was without the name of the place-the post mark and the minister's name were our only guides to discover it. J. R. L-You were too late for this month. Send a report and we can then form an opinion. J. M. A.-The Memoir you have sent us of your worthy father is very creditable to your filial affection, but it is too long for our pages, and the date of his death too remote for our brief notices. The Cheapest Sabbath School Hymn Book Published. THE BAPTIST SABBATH SCHOOL HYMN BOOK. THIS REDUCTION IN PRICE. HIS is the largest Hymn Book published for Sabbath Schools, containing 532 hymns, inclusive of Hymns for Teachers' Meetings. Demy 32mo, strongly bound in Coloured Leather. Thirty-fourth Edition. The Proprietor of this Hymn Book has determined to reduce the price to SEVENPENCE. In order to secure them at this price, orders must be sent to Leicester direct, accompanied by a Post Office Order, made payable to WINKS AND SON, with proper directions as to the cheapest mode of conveyance. They will be enclosed, carriage free to London, or in any of the monthly parcels from Leicester. A Specimen will be sent to any part of the Kingdom, on remitting twelve postage stamps to WINKS AND SON, Leicester. DACRE PARK CHAPEL, Blackheath, Kent. THE ANe held on Whit Monday, June 5th, 1854, when Three Sermons will be preached; that in the morning, at eleven, by Mr. Chislett, of East Lane, Walworth; in the afternoon, at three, by Mr. Spurgeon, of New Park Street, Southwark; and in the evening, at half-past six, by Mr, Wyard, of Soho Chapel, Oxford Street. Dinner and tea will be provided. ANNIVERSARY of the above place Trains leave London Bridge for Blackheath every hour. [124] WANTED to purchase, clean and perfect, W from 1809 to 1821 inclusive. Address, B. F. F., 6, Addington Square, Margate. [125] ANTED, a Youth as an Apprentice to the Grocery Trade. Money will be given for each year for clothing. Apply to Mr. R. Petford, Old Hill, near Dudley. [122] THE BAPTIST REPORTER. JUNE, 1854. ANNIVERSARIES OF BAPTIST SOCIETIES-1854. ENGLAND, in the spring of every returning year, presents a spectacle which she originated herself, and which, hitherto, she has well sustained. We allude to the annual gatherings of her Religious and Philanthropic Institutions. Other European nations have attempted to imitate her example, but not being favoured with the same freedom of action, they have not been able to follow closely in her wake. Only in the United States can we find, on the face of our globe, anything like the mighty meetings which are now every year assembled in our metropolis -meetings_which were commenced when all Europe was in a state of agitation and alarm, which were not hushed into silence by the hum of peaceful industry-and which will not, we venture to predict, be deafened by the din of distant war. Yet, as hitherto, and onward for ages, will the free christians of England continue to meet and act for the good of the nations, and the glory of their God and Saviour. Having now, for nearly half a century, watched the proceedings at these annual gatherings, we always feel a deep interest in their return; and we have no doubt that this feeling is shared with us by all our readers. We attach more importance to the tidings they bring us, than to the contents of any telegraphic dispatch or official bulletin from the seats of war. Not that we are unconcerned as to whether V Let despotism succeeds or is repulsed in First in the order of gathering, are the meetings of our own denomination. Our more limited space will prevent us from giving such extended extracts from the reports of the proceedings as we were wont to furnish, but we shall do our best to give the substance of them. BAPTIST UNION. The forty-second annual session was held at the Mission House, Moorgate Street, on Friday, April 21, Dr. Hoby in the chair. The Chairman delivered an Intro ductory Address. After a copious reference to the past and prospective state and operations of the christian church, and its duty, as indicated by the present position of affairs, Dr. Hoby set forth in very glowing terms the splendid contrast which existed between the triumphs of armies and the triumphs of the cross. He also referred at length to the Census Returns on religious worship, and the position of the baptist denomination as indicated thereby; and afterwards referred at some length to the subject of ministerial support. Among all communities this subject comes to be carefully weighed. It is said to be easy for the Episcopal Establishment to augment its enormous revenues by half a million per annum, simply by a better administration of the landed property. A sustentation fund guarantees moderate support to the ministers of the Free Church of Scotland, as it is designated; and among Presbyterians, a fund for 'supplementary' incomes of poorer churches is annually raised. Our own Nonconformist bodies have their projects for educating children, apprenticing sons, and insuring lives of minis ters. the And much may be said for one and all of these expedients. It is perhaps true, that among ourselves, where an entrance of men wholly untrained and unrecognised upon pastoral work is so easy, that in proportion to the provision made for its support, safeguards will be required against mere adventurers, or men who, from common and worldly motives, prefer the work of the ministry to that of ordinary secular labour. But because liable to abuse, there is no reason why means for improving the support of pastors should not be considered. Honourable engagements to supplement insufficient salaries, and especially such as harmonize with, or, at least, are not injurious to, the pastoral character, are greatly needed. But, among able churches, perhaps an annual collection in aid of weaker churches may be the scheme most worthy of being tried, as being most easy of effective control in the administration. The erection of a pastor's residence, when a place of meeting for the church is reared, would often prove of highest benefit. It can only be realised under peculiarly favourable circumstances, but is worthy to be kept in mind. May it be permitted to mention thanksgiving days and donation parties? These are Transatlantic customs, and have arisen partly from circumstances which render the punctual payment of a money salary peculiarly difficult. But, beyond a question, there are many churches where a cheerful holiday at a pastor's house, at which the feast should be furnished by the flock, and the home be left substantially enriched by more than baskets of fragments, would diffuse a genial feeling through a community; and while a minister's family might be provided with many necessaries and comforts, it would by the people be felt to be far more blessed to give than to receive. The generous support of a good minister is the greatest good which a wise and pious people can confer on themselves." Dr. H. concluded with a touching allusion to the departure of his late friend and brother, Dr. Cox: "That robust and manly form is seen no dignity to our circle; that smiling more; that presence no longer adds a countenance and genial spirit shall not again shed a sunshine on our hearts!" "The principal topics afterwards discussed, related to the statistical Progress of the denomination; education (embracing the Universities); and the persecutions of the baptists in Switzerland and the petty States in Germany. The reports from the Associations still show an annual increase in the associated churches; but, on the average, so small as, in the opinion of the majority, to furnish a grave cause for humiliation, and a powerful motive to renewed effort. Several gentlemen, however, were disposed to take a less gloomy view of the subject, and suggested emigration and other causes as sufficient to account for the smallness of the reported increase, without in was unanimously agreed, that the labours of the Committee, formed for the purpose of watching the progress of the question in Parliament, had been very valuable in promoting the rejection of more than one objectionable measure. The advocates of State Education, provided that religious teaching were left perfectly free, appeared to think, that they had caught their brethren tripping when, to the general resolution repudiating State interference, there succeeded one calling upon the Legislature to throw open the Universities for the admission of dissenters; but the implied charge of inconsistency was rebutted; gentlemen declaring that they had no difficulty in supporting both resolutions, in the hope that the time would come, when property now devoted to educational purposes would be applied to the redemption of the national debt, and popular instruction be left, as it ought to be, to the people themselves. A noticeable fact was stated. There are some baptist ministers, it would seem, who think that the college foundations ought to be taken from the Established Church, and restored to the Roman Catholics as the only rightful owners! ferring a low state of the churches. | terfere to give secular instruction to By some, moreover, it was suggested, the children of the poor; though it that mere numbers, taken by themselves, were a fallacious standard of spiritual prosperity, and that a church might not improbably be in a more healthy condition under a numerical decline, than at a time of apparent increase. Some very sensible observations were thrown out by Mr. E. B. Underhill. From his extensive correspondence with the denomination as secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, he was able to attest the marked abatement of hyper-Calvinist asperity, as shown in adhesions to the missionary cause from ministers and churches which had formerly stood aloof. He also remarked upon the entire absence of denominational controversies as a favourable sign. The chief danger, he seemed to think, lay in the too ambitious style of modern preaching. There was no lack of learned, polished, and elaborate discourses; but the faithful, pointed, and earnest proclamation and enforcement of the gospel, was not, in all cases, perhaps, sufficiently maintained. We have our own fears that this is a defect characteristic of the times, rather than of any single denomination. Has not the tone of preaching been lowered, from a notion of pleasing the more refined taste, and meeting the more intellectual demands, of a more educated age? The doctrinal must be interwoven with the practical, and the ethical with the experimental, to make pulpit-teaching what it ought to be; and while persons without the pale of the church are told, that he who believeth shall be saved,'* persons who made a religious profession should never cease to hear of the necessity of the new birth. On the subject of education, the members of the Baptist Union are evidently not agreed. A minority, but a most respectable minority, appear to favour the notion, that the State may properly and usefully in * This, our readers will see, is a mutilated quota tion; but we are copying from the Patriot.-ED. B. R. The resolution of sympathy with baptists suffering from persecution in Switzerland and in various parts of Germany, was adopted with reference to a painfully-interesting report of facts, made from personal observation and inquiry by the Rev. T. R. Brooke, rector of Avening, and the Rev. Dr. Steane, at the instance of the Executive Committee for the vindication and promotion of religious liberty, recently constituted by the Homburg Conference. Although, in every instance recorded, the sufferers are baptists, this circumstance will not prevent the friends to religious liberty of all denominations from participating in the feelings of indignation which such proceedings taken in the name of protestantism are adapted to excite." |