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GENERAL BAPTISTS IN 1883.

363 returns to the Association; (2) deduct at least three per cent. for those who are on the point of falling out of the lists; and (3) make a conscience of understating rather than overstating our church strength.* Literal accuracy runs greater risk of being false than a numerical understatement.

But supposing we have "squared our accounts," the question recurs -What is the exact meaning of these erasures? We must not take a false alarm. There is no doubt the loss is mainly one of figures, and rarely one of sonls. It is a change in book-keeping, and not in the drift and trend of the Christian life. Mr. Spurgeon's erasure list is typical. Compiled on the same plan as others it would contain 122 names; but forty-five are set down as having joined other churches without letters, and fifteen have emigrated, and may have joined churches abroad. These facts suggest a way of accounting for about one half of the erasures. They join other churches without "letters."

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Again, these large erasures are chiefly in the town churches, and are generally found associated with a change of pastorate. The fact is, denominationalism, though not dead, is "sleeping;" and in our busy towns few persons, I fear, elect their religious home on the grounds of identity with the church in its view of baptism, or its creed on the "Atonement." It is the preacher who fills the vision. Moral and social affinities sway the choice, and not doctrine. Of course all this is very bad. Men and women ought to support their "views" by attending a chapel whose seats are a penance, the singing an affliction, the atmosphere below zero, and the preacher a-well-not one of the best. But ought," in this case, stands for nothing. The preacher determines the audience, and when the preacher goes the "erasure" list, sooner or later, witnesses to the change. And this without any blame whatever to the new preacher. For many have attended his predecessor from the force of old associations, travelling a considerable distance to have the impulse of hallowed friendships, and the force of continued spiritual impact from the same centre; but that is all changed; and though the new be also the abler man, and has many advantages springing from his later advent amongst men, yet he must be an altogether exceptional preacher if he is able to foreclose a large exodus of those members who reside at a distance from his place of ministry, or who have risen during the period, partly by the aid of his forerunner, into a "higher social grade."

While, then, we bear the fires of our erasure fever bravely, and resolve to be accurate for evermore, yet as it does not improve a man's digestion to tell his age to the minute, nor add tone and vigour to his body to get his exact height and weight, so correct statistics will not save mankind, or add fresh life to our churches. We must fairly face the fact that we are not doing the work God has set us, and for the doing of which He has saved us by His Son. Neither in village nor in town are we advancing. It is regarded as inevitable that we should be stagnant in the villages. The "promising young people" still seek the busier scenes of life, and the social forces play against us with terrific energy; and so for a long time we have been grateful if we could hold our ground. But, just now, we are failing in the towns as well. Take twenty of those in which we are planted, and in seven of them the

*Cf. G. B. Magazine, 1882, pp. 107, 148.

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GENERAL BAPTISTS IN 1883.

advance of the year is represented by units, and only in thirteen have we made any numerical headway at all, and that not much. We are spending large sums of money, and rendering great service to the spiritual well-being of those towns in many ways, but we are not increasing our working forces, although in all of them the population is rapidly mounting up. This ought not to be, and must not be.

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What, then, must be done? (1.) It goes without saying, that we need more spiritual life, a stronger love of souls, a clearer vision of truth, a heartier devotion to Christ and His kingdom, and a spirit of thoroughgoing self-sacrifice. O that God would pour out His Spirit abundantly upon us!

(2.) But our needs are in other respects not all alike. In some directions we require a little more self-restraint in the management of church affairs; greater courtesy and forbearance; a winning gentleness and conquering meekness; less dictation from men of strength; more consideration for the weak; kinder speech, and a greater willingness to be anything for the sake of "edifying the church."

(3.) Some churches would begin a new and better career by uniting together and inviting a man to direct their spiritual activities, and nourish their spiritual fervour. What they cannot do alone, or only do miserably, they might do effectively together.

(4.) Special Services might be introduced into some churches with great advantage. The Year Book bears witness to the advantage of "Services for the Young," conducted in different parts of the denomination by our friend Mr. S. D. Rickards. There are towns and villages that should not let November close without a "special effort," preceded by special prayer, and pervaded by a pure and living spirit.

(5.) In other quarters it is necessary to recollect that spiritual progress has material limits. We are still in the body: and the "body" of a church is the edifice in which it worships. Mr. Spurgeon's numbers will not go much higher than they are now, save as they embrace worshippers in other buildings than the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The capacity of the building fixes the limit for the numerical growth of the churches. We have more than a dozen churches in sight of that limit; and unless they create off-shoots, or build larger chapels, they will add nothing to the figures of the denomination. This requires immediate and practical attention.

(6.) Would not a little more freeness in giving money be the beginning of a spiritual revival in some cases? The machinery is clogged for want of this golden oil. Workers are fettered. The minister is chafed and hindered. Efforts are dwarfed because the outflow of generosity is so pinched and narrow. "Freely ye have received, freely give," saith the Spirit to the churches. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

(7.) Suffer me to say again, we need more interest in our organic life. Secretaries of Conferences should not be mere recording clerks ; but along with the President, Vice-President, and Committee, should exercise an affectionate episcopal care over all the churches in the district, encouraging the feeble, aiding the tempted and tried with counsel and sympathy, and rejoicing with the prosperous. Specially should the nonreporting churches be kindly visited. Silence is suspicious. Co-opera

GENERAL BAPTISTS IN 1883.

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ting with the Local Preachers' Association in this work, the Conferences might save churches from suffering, and from peril of extinction.

Might not the Conferences also more nourishingly feed the denominational enthusiasm for the Building Fund, the College, and the Home and Foreign Missions. The Building Fund might easily be increased. Certain persons give as they are asked, feeling sure that they are not likely to be allowed to forget any good work, and all you have to do is to ask often enough. The Building Fund should be placed on the list of the Church's Agent for denominational work, and these waiting friends have the opportunity of aiding one of our most valuable societies. Reinforcements to our working staff in Orissa and Rome are urgently needed, the College never had a stronger plea, and our Home Mission work ought to be extended a hundred fold. All along the line we require more giving: larger gifts from those who give, and the number of givers greatly increased. The wealth of the nation has increased immensely, and we cannot believe it has gone to every other Christian body, and left the General Baptists without its benediction. When will our churches reap their full share of the nation's prosperity?

(8.) Another and final point I will mention. We must pay more attention to preaching. The best preaching has the golden key to the immediate future. Phillipps Brooks says, "The better men will always conquer the better cause. I suppose no cause could be so good that sustained by bad men, and opposed by any error whose champions were men of spotless lives, it would not fall. The truth must conquer; but it must first embody itself in goodness." The best preaching can only be given by the BEST MEN. Robert Collyer, one of the ablest of the preachers of America, was asked the other day what he believed to be the key to success in the ministry; and he answered promptly and heartily, "Live, live!" Indeed it is the key to any real human or divine success. "Live, live" a large life, full and quick in its sympathies, ever going deeper and deeper in its contact with men, and soaring higher and higher in its communion with God; rich and cultured, active and growing, receiving and giving out, well-read in the past, alert in eye for the present, large in hope of the future; steeped in love, strong in grip, clear in vision, and brave in deed; a Christ-like life, noble, pure, helpful, self-sacrificing, magnetizing lost souls. Even Lord Carnarvon, and no one will imagine him forgetful of the dignities, says, "any modification which would infuse new life into the too conventional and formal character of our sermons is desirable."

May the Lord Himself give us of His fulness, and grace for grace, so that from end to end of our General Baptist churches, abroad and at home, we may have His life, and have it more abundantly!

JOHN CLIFFORD.

THE CHRISTIAN TEMPER.-" A readiness to part with our dearest comforts, when required for the sake of Christ, is that temper which the Lord requires of all His disciples, and which the gospel effectually produceth in all those in whom it savingly takes place."-Dan Taylor.

"Unkind expressions injure rather than serve the cause of truth."-Dan Taylor.

The Value of a Capable and Competent Ministry.*

BY REV. THOMAS GOADBY, B.A.

OWING to our entering next Session, at Nottingham, in connexion with an important centre of University teaching, upon a new era in the history of the College, the matter of ways and means has become increasingly important, and calls for a preliminary remark. Our income from ordinary sources during the past year has been less than the expenditure, and our treasury shows a considerable, if diminished, deficit. In my visits to the churches I have frequently to ask for liberal congregational collections: once in my Report I dwelt upon the desirability of strengthening our subscription list, in which the larger sums are conspicuously few. Allow me now to urge upon our friends the importance and need of endowments for college purposes. All the greater and more influential colleges of the world are endowed, some of them heavily. There are Lectureships, and Fellowships, and Scholarships, and liberal investments for Professors chairs. The training of medical men, of soldiers, of civil servants, of bishops and clergy, and even of noblemen and princes is in part dependent upon endowments. The reason is obvious. Trade fluctuates, supply and demand waver uncertainly, liberality is to some extent an unknown and always a variable quantity; but education is the slow process of years, and should be calmly, steadily, uninterruptedly pursued. The principle of endowments is, I venture to think, sometimes repudiated by us to our disadvantage, and with no apparent consistency. We lose much; and we do not save our logic, our rhetoric, or our conscience. We build chapels and pay for them, and they are endowments. We build schools and pay for them, and they are endowments. We build ministers houses and secure college premises, and pay for them, and they are endowments. It is well known that some of us would never have had a University training at all but for endowments, and in any case that training would not have been possible in the form in which it actually fell to our lot but for endowments. The whole educational system of the country is now based in large measure upon the principle, or what is equivalent to the principle, of endowments, and "private venture" schools are going to the wall. The conditions under which education is conducted, and the standard of efficiency in teaching-and I may say this with gratitude and emphasis in Bradford-have been very considerably improved and raised by the judicious use of subsidies and endowments. Let us, then, allow it to be well understood in the right quarter, let us make it widely known amongst our friends, that we welcome, that we seek, that we need, that we will endeavour, as we obtain them, wisely to use endowments for purposes connected with the education of the Christian ministry. There can surely be no better, more patriotic, more philanthropic, more religious employment of wealth than to aid the training and promote the efficiency of the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

With the growing needs of our churches and of the world, our people have always enough to do to keep all their agencies at work.

Address at Bradford at the Public Meeting on behalf of the College.

A CAPABLE AND COMPETENT MINISTRY.

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The objection "there are so many things" is no doubt often a miserable and lame excuse covering want of interest or selfish parsimony, but it is true nevertheless. There are so many things, and the wonder is that our activities connected with all kinds of philanthropic work, and reaching to the ends of the earth, confronting us every week of our lives, and sometimes every day of the week, are so well sustained as they are. But it is the miracle of prompt Christian liberality, or the conjuring of ready Christian zeal. I have seen in a fair a spangled acrobat with five or six golden balls, performing the astonishing feat of keeping them all in the air at once. The acrobat-forgive the comparison-is a type of modern Nonconformist enterprise. There they go, all up, and all kept up,-Foreign Mission, Home Mission, College, Building Fund, School, Minister, and the like! And the wonder is not that now and then one falls to the ground, endangering the whole game, but that some how the fallen ball gets dexterously picked up again, and by quick movements affecting the whole series, all of them glitter and dance again gaily in the air.

It is because we are interested in these religious movements that we sustain them, and with lack of interest the sustenance would cease. But why should we not be even more deeper and profoundly interested than we are in the training of a competent and capable ministry? Is there any religious institution that has in it greater value and richer blessing for the churches, or that has done nobler service for the whole Christian commonwealth and for the world at large? For what is a capable and competent ministry? There is, first of all, Christian character as a basis. We begin there. If that be wanting, all is wanting which constitutes a sure foundation. Religious character, the love of God, of man, sympathy and fellowship with Christ, practical godliness, pure, brave, noble, devout life,-all this is indispensable. Then there is adequate knowledge of the message and word of salvation; what it is, how it came, through what modifications, misapprehensions, perversions it has passed, how it has recovered its simplicity and purity, what is its central theme and inspiration, how it meets our need to-day. Then there is adequate knowledge of human nature and human life: what men have been and are, what they think about, how they think, what they need, and how to reach them and do them good. Then, finally, grace and ability to use this knowledge in order to help, bless and save men. This is a capable and competent ministry. It gathers up and concentrates in itself the piety of the saint, the fervour and enthusiasm of the prophet, the zeal of evangelist and apostle, and it blends them harmoniously with the wisdom of the philosopher, the eloquence of the statesman, and the power of work and practical sagacity of the man of affairs. In other words, the capable and competent Christian minister is one who lives in thought all along the ages of Time, sees down into the deep heart of man, and away into the Infinite Future, and living also face to face with God and with our present-day world, grasps and wields the eternal forces by which the better character and life of men and the kingdom of God are upbuilt: Such a ministry has incomparable value for the church and for the whole circle of humanity. It is a veritable witness of the power of Christian truth, a conspicuous exhibition to mankind of what the word and grace of God can do for human nature, a living example of Christian charac

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