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Church Reports.

A FRENCH satirist writes, "It is easier to know man in general than to know any man in particular." The same may be said of any really vital Christian church, addressing itself with single-minded energy and heaven-lighted enthusiasm to its noble work of saving the world. You cannot know it. Its excellencies cannot be photographed by any earthly chemistry. Its spiritual worth cannot be assessed by men. Its healing and redeeming influence on the life of the world cannot be reported. The best work-that which outlasts the stars, and purifies humanity-is invisible as electricity, and far more potent. Even those who are inside the church, and feel its throbbing pulsations of hope and effort, of love and yearning, have but dim visions of its real beauty, and often fail to discern the glowing vesture of loveliness which cheers the heart of the sympathetic Christ; and certainly outsiders, to whom the current estimates of the functions and services of insignificant spiritual societies appear overweighted and egoistic, will do well to ponder the deep saying of George Eliot, "That the most powerful of all beauty is that which reveals itself after sympathy, and not before it." Animated with noble sympathies and self-annulling loves, we have the insight requisite for studying the simple annals of our church life.

How far back in the dim past that life roots itself! Who can trace the origin and cause of the spiritual impulses and yearnings, hopes and efforts, of the year 1882 ? What an evolution! Here is BETHNAL GREEN ROAD, LONDON, celebrating a triple anniversary: the first of the new chapel, the fifth of the pastor, and the 242nd of the church! How chequered the story! What spiritual vitality there is in gold! What tenacity of life and fulness of occult promise in an endowment! The material is wedded to the spiritual; and the immortal life of the church beats in a body, subject to the vicissitudes of time! Do not suppress the feeblest spiritual germ even though planted in a musty legal document one or two hundred years old. We know not whither it

may grow.

The anniversary on March 3 was full of spirit. B. S. Olding, Esq., M.L.S.B., presided, and addresses were given by Revs. R. P. Cook, J. Levinsohn, W. J. Inglis, W. Harvey Smith (pastor), Mr. G. F. Treverton, and the secretary. £20 were realized. As proof that the modern spirit is at work in the old church, the first printed report is issued. It contains a description of the efforts to prepare and pay for the new chapel, a paper on "Christian Giving," read at a church meeting, and a description of the work now being done. Here is a feature, with a "High" Church flavour:-"The NAZARITE GUILD, composed exclusively of total abstaining Christians, has been very active in fulfilling its mission to the church and the world. It has a membership of seventy-five, and during the past year it has influenced fifty-three of its members to join the church. It has sustained a Saturday Evening Gospel Temperance meeting, provided the principal workers in the Sunday school and Band of Hope, and during the summer months, and as long as the weather permitted, conducted evangelistic services in the open-air every evening during the week and on Sundays, besides supporting the Young Peoples' Wednesday Evening Service in the school-rooms, which has recently, under the auspices of the same society, been converted into classes for the study of reading, writing, arithmetic, scripture, and closed by a brief prayer meeting. During our special services this society supplied us with our most energetic canvassers, and largely, by their persevering zeal and industry, we were enabled to visit in one week no fewer than 10,000 homes, and invite the inmates to hear Mr. Spurgeon's evangelists. The work of tract distribution is mainly carried on by the Guild." As to the debt, Mr. Spurgeon writes:-"I wish every success at Bethnal Green Road. Considering you have so newly come to the work your debt is a great load, and I trust all our friends will generously help you to reduce it." Very cordially do we endorse that word, and trust the spring bazaar will be a great success.

COMMERCIAL ROAD, LONDON, is another sign of energetic and increasing vitality in the midst of ancient memories and cherished traditions. The annual meeting is reported in our last issue, and the REPORT now before us is replete with the signs of goodwill, activity, generosity, and hope. But is it not putting

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a premium on unpunctuality to remind seat-holders that their sittings will be occupied by visitors till after the singing of the first hymn? Will not our friends who find they cannot "stand up and bless the Lord" when the service opens be delighted to see their seats occupied by visitors ? Of course they would far rather invite such strangers to dinner or supper than think of disturbing them! The various funds have been well sustained, and the summary of receipts shows a total of £834 17s. 9d.

The best edited "manual" that has yet fallen into our hands is that of FRIAR LANE, LEICESTER, prepared by our friend the Rev. Isaac Stubbins. It is not a mere report of work done, but it is rich in instruction and suggestion. Of many points we might note, we can only mention the healthy rule of business, requiring all matters be discussed at a deacons' meeting before it is introduced to the church; the place given to the choir; and the total receipts, viz., £716 13s. 3d.

Passing to the town of NOTTINGHAM, we have reports from BROAD STREET and MANSFIELD ROAD. The former contains the important item ::-" With respect to our own church roll, a careful scrutiny will show that we are rapidly dropping mere names, and that in nearly every case a name now represents a living and active personality. During the current year a system of communion tickets and district visiting will be adopted, which will materially assist in perfecting (as far as can be) our list of members." The gifts to denominational institutions are generous and exemplary, and the total receipts are £919 15s. 6d. The Mansfield Road report is, in addition to the usual statement concerning societies and institutions, enriched with a brief and interesting history of the church from its foundation, and the "report" sent to the last Association. The receipts for the year are £843 16s. 11d.

The church at PRAED STREET, WESTBOURNE PARK, and BoswORTH ROAD, London, held its annual meeting March 5. It reports a membership of 1075; five schools containing over 1600 children and 140 teachers. The total receipts for 1882 are £4,121 11s. Od. JOHN CLIFFORD.

New Chapel.

ARNOLD, near Nottingham. The Baptists of this large village of 5,000 inhabitants have for some years suffered great inconvenience from the unsuitability of the premises in which they have conducted their Sunday school and public worship. On Monday, March 5, 1883, the ceremony was performed of "turning the first sod," as it was called, for new school-rooms to accommodate 500 children; having on the ground floor eight class rooms, kitchen, etc., and extending over these a large central hall.

On the completion of the schools, it is intended to erect a new chapel to seat 450, at the total cost of £2,000. The site is partly on the old foundation central, and by the side of the graveyard which is endeared by sixty years' associations.

It may be stated, as evidence of the pluck and self-sacrifice of the friends, that besides clearing off an old debt of £120, they have raised £400 towards the new undertaking. In order to secure the land for school premises and a larger chapel, a few friends bought the adjoining property for £550, with a view of re-selling what can be spared. Several Nottingham gentlemen, (having a knowledge of the state of the barn-looking and dilapidated old building, which has served for school and chapel, and of the fact that 300 children were taught in hired rooms,) and our senior M. P., Col. Seeley, Esq., having liberally patronized the movement, the building committee hope to raise at least £800 by the time of the opening services. W. RICHARDSON, Sec.

O beautiful example,

For youthful minds to heed!
The good we do to others
Shall never miss its meed;

The love of those whose sorrows
We lighted shall be ours,
And o'er the path we walk in
That love shall scatter flowers.
-Bryant.

I.

Scraps from the Editor's Waste-Basket.

GOING SOUTH. I regret to have to say that for the next two months I shall be absent from my home. Medical advice on the one hand, and the affectionate solicitudes of my beloved people on the other, conspire in banishing me to the South of France. I submit, with unfeigned regret, that there is any reason for the "advice," and with unspeakable gratitude to and affections for a church which has loved me for nearly twentyfive years with an increasing tenderness and an ever-deepening trustfulness. May the Chief Bishop of souls answer, in their full consecration and augmented usefulness, the daily prayers of him who counts it the joy of his life to be their servant and minister for Christ's sake!

For the principal contents of this magazine I have already provided; and my friend Mr. Fletcher assents most readily to relieve "a wearied comrade" by reading proofs and attending to the Church Register department. Will correspondents please send their "intelligence" for the May and June issues to the REV. JOSEPH FLETCHER, 322, COMMERCIAL ROAD, LONDON, E.?

II. OUR MAGAZINE.-Another pastor writes: "You will be pleased to hear that I have succeeded in reviving the obsolete custom here of taking the 'Mag' to the extent of thirty copies a month. Our friends were delighted with the dear creature, and think she never looked better than now."

III. REV. J. FLETCHER.-A good portrait and a brief sketch of the pastor of Commercial Road Chapel, London, appeared in the Christian Globe for March 9. It costs one penny.

IV. "SWEAR NOT AT ALL."-Can anything bear a clearer witness to the way in which tradition and prejudice sway the minds of Christians than the fact that the Evangelical Alliance (sic) summons meetings to ask God to stop the Affirmation Bill, and that "Free Church" ministers "cry aloud" against Parliament obeying the clear, express, and unambiguous edict of Christ our King, "Swear not at all: but let your speech be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and whatsoever is more than these is of the Evil One." Oath taking is a pagan, Christ-forbidden practise.

How can Christians defend it?

V. THE POLICY OF THE TIMES.It is undeniably manifest that the object of the Tories is, and has been for a long time, to make legislation impossible. Persistent obstruction is the order. They

know that Liberal legislation is the annihilation of class privileges and monopolies; and, with the instinct of their kind, they resist it. It is already clear that we shall have another session, of which the major part will be wasted in irritating talk, and the minor marked by a few statutes enacted at a prodigious cost of time and pains. It is necessary that Liberals should let the Tories know that they have taken the measure of their patriotism.

REPRESENTATIVE

GOVERNMENT

VI. THE GREAT NEED FOR INDIA.-Lieut. R. D. Osborn writes a most caustic article in the Dec. Contemporary on this subject; an article which goes a long way to account for the comparative slow progress of Christianity in India. If our Government in India has been one-tenth as disastrous in its influence on the native populations as this author says, the wonder is that we have any converts to report. "The present condition of India," he says, "is a counterpart of the present condition of Ireland, and due to a series of like causes," i.e., throwing the people on the land by "the destruction of the native courts, the ruin of the wealthy classes, and the substitution of English officials whose wants are supplied from Europe; and the imposition of the most costly government to be found in the world; a foreign army of 60,000 men, and the expenditure of twenty millions of Home Charges' annually of India's money in London." It is not surprising that India should be impoverished. The cure is (1) the creation of seven or eight provincial Governments, according to the suggestion of John Bright; (2.) the establishment of a representative assem. bly. Men will say they are not fit for it: but that is the old cry of despots, and is not to be heeded. Christian missions ought to improve the social and political condition of the people of that vast continent. We are bound to give to the people of India every privilege and right we claim for ourselves; if we do not India will, in time, cease, and rightly cease, to be ours.

VII. SOCIAL PURITY.-THE BISHOP OF DURHAM AND THE "WHITE CROSS ARMY." -The Bishop of Durham, in a letter to a Newcastle paper, strongly supports the "White Cross Army" movement, on behalf of which Miss Ellis Hopkins has been visiting the northern counties. The Bishop says: "Those who have heard her (Miss Hopkins's) appeals on behalf

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of her wronged and degraded sistersher sisters and ours-feel that they cannot any longer let the matter rest where it is. A more wholesome and righteous public opinion must be created in the matter of social purity. Not until it is generally recognized that the man who has wrought a woman's degradation is at least as great an offender against society as the man who has robbed a till, or the man who has forged a cheque-nay, a much greater, for he has done a far more irreparable wrong--not until society is prepared to visit such an offender with the severest social penalties will there be any real change for the better. So long as the violation of purity is condoned in the one sex and visited with shame in the other, our unrighteousness and unmanliness must continue to work out its own terrible retribution. At a meeting held at Durham the other day," the Bishop adds, "a committee was appointed to consider whether any diocesan movement could not be organized. I trust that this may be found feasible. But meanwhile I should be only too happy to

learn that diocesan action had been anticipated by the formation of parochial associations."

VIII. DON'T forget the FIRE. It is reported of the abundantly educated but dull-witted Chinese, that when they wished to originate a fleet of steam-ships they bought a model in this country, and set their work-people to imitate it. They copied it exactly, every plank, every spar, every rope, every bolt, every nut, and they put their crew on board. Still the ship would not move out of harbour. They had forgotten one little matterthey hadn't lit the fire under the boiler. There are churches constructed upon the New Testament pattern: fashioned as near as may be to the model shown in the" Acts and Epistles," with every order, every officer, and a large "crew" on board. But somehow they do not do much. Evil does not disappear. Goodness does not develop. They have not lit the fires of love of God and men, and till they do, they may be fit for a museum, but surely they are not fit for the world.

Reviews.

THE GREAT MEMORIAL NAME: OR, THE SELF-REVELATION OF JEHOVAH AS THE GOD OF REDEMPTION. By P. W. Grant. Hodder & Stoughton.

THE title of this book gives an insufficient idea of its wide range. It is a discussion of the chief momenta in the history of redemption, and covers the ground traversed by Delitszsch in his concise and suggestive lectures on that theme. Mr. Grant, starting with the declaration made to Moses on the occasion of his designation to the work of deliverer and leader of the Chosen People, ascends to the Edenic "promise" of a Saviour, and then investigates every successive expression of the redeeming purpose of God in the history of the Hebrews, on to, and inclusive of the ministry of Christ and His apostles.

The treatment of this vast theme is, in the main, vigorous and able, strongly conservative, often suggestive, and always devout. The author has spared no pains to render his book interesting, stimulating, and complete.

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Spirit-drinking is shown to be the foe of sustained courage and true heroism, and, indeed, productive of insubordination and sickness in the ranks of the army. Mr. Gregson tells a true and stirring tale of work for the welfare of our Indian soldiers.

LIVES OF ILLUSTRIOUS SHOEMAKERS. By William Edward Winks. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington.

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"An exceedingly good idea has been capitally worked out by Mr. Winks in his deeply interesting work. The gentle craft has been always, as he says, vested with an air of romance,' and some of his stories are certainly as good as novels. Mr. Winks has done his work with the fervour of an enthusiast and the judgment of a practised writer. No better stories of real life have ever been compiled, and we catch in every page that gentle enthusiasm of humanity' without which no work of this kind has life and vigour in it. We congratulate the author on the production of a really novel and good book. Sons of Crispin, everywhere, will find in it a mine of good things."-York Herald.

"WHAT SHALL WE DO

REVIEWS.

WITH THEM? " By Miss Corke; with preface by the Right Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury. London: J. Nisbet & Co.

THE literature of philanthropy is one of the "signs" of our time, and a forcible witness to the pervasive energy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The history of institutions "like the London and Brighton Convalescent Home" is a practical response to many questions besides the urgent one with which the gifted authoress heads her book. It tells us, some of us, "what we may do with ourselves" if our hearts be full of the love of Christ; "what aid we may expect from God in unselfish work for the needy;" and is fruitful in suggestions of the numerous fields of service open to Christian inventiveness.

"Are we still standing idle?" Let us rouse ourselves by meditation on the facts set out in this story-help and health for the weary and weak.

INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY. By W.

Garrett Horder. Stock.

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INTIMATIONS of an immortal life are found in the Human Race;" ." "Human Nature;" "Nature;" "the Christ;" and "the Unseen Realm;" and in this book they are so grouped, expressed, and enriched with apt quotations in prose and verse, as to form a solid basis for hope, a genuine incitement to faith, and a welcome solace to the perplexed and troubled. The author avoids some of the more crucial questions connected with immortality, but gives an interesting and satisfactory answer to the enquiry, "If a man die, shall he live again ?"

BOY LIFE: OR, NOTICES OF THE EARLY STRUGGLES OF GREAT MEN. By Wm. Winters, F.R.H.S. Stock.

MOST readers will dissent from the saying that no apology is needed for another book on this theme. "Self-help" and proclamations of the gospel of "getting on in the world," are plentiful enough, but here is another, and not constructed on the best pattern. Its facts, however, are numerous, and the quotations are apt and striking, the notices are well selected and well indexed, and the whole is well got up. Most boys will enjoy the volume.

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have spoken before of the manifold excellences of this story; and we heartily commend this edition, as forming at once a capital gift book and substantial addition to our stock for Sunday school and domestic libraries.

"NEED I BE BAPTIZED?" A Leaflet. Marlborough & Co.

"WE are glad to note that Mr. Clifford's leaflet, 'Need I be Baptized?' has reached its fiftieth thousand. We can best express our estimate of its worth by describing it as masterly and comprehensive. It presents the subject of Baptism in its true light-as a privilege rather than a duty-and sweeps away all such objections as that it is of secondary importance, not essential to salvation, a mere form, etc. The scholarship and ability of the tract are not more conspicuous than its candour and liberality." --Freeman.

MATTHEW HENRY'S COMMENTARY. Hodder & Stoughton.

OUR readers will have the opportunity of purchasing in nine three and sixpenny parts, a complete and unabridged edition of the familiar, refreshing, and practical Commentary of Matthew Henry. Its value is greatly increased by "notes" from recent writers such as Tristram, Keil, and Wilkinson, illustrative of the customs, places, etc., referred to in the Holy Scriptures. It promises to be the edition of Matthew Henry for general use.

THE TEACHER'S STOREHOUSE. Stock. SUNDAY School Teachers have just now an opportunity of obtaining a most useful book at a nominal price. The publisher of the "Teacher's Storehouse and Treasury" is offering the annual volume of the work at half-price, viz., one shilling, or by post, free for one shilling and fourpence. We advise our readers to take advantage of this offer, as the work is a complete storehouse of useful material for the teacher's use, and the number to be sold under this arrangement is limited. Application should be made to Mr. Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.

STEPPING-STONES TO HIGHER THINGS. By Captain Seton Churchill. Stock. A BOOK of counsels for those who are seeking the "higher things." In the main it is scriptural, but not altogether free from traditional misinterpretations of the word. It is devout in its tone, and earnest and practical in its appeals.

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