THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL – VOLUME 7

THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL

MAY, 1883.

THE USE OF WOOL IN THE EARS

BY C. H. SPURGEON.

WE are told concerning Bernard of Clairvaux that, after he had given himself up entirely to contemplation and walking with God, he met with a considerable difficulty in the visits of those friends who were still in the world. their conversation brought back thoughts and feelings connected with the frivolities which he had for ever forsaken; and on one occasion, after he had been wearied with the idle chit-chat of his visitors, he found himself unable to raise his heart towards heaven. When he was engaged in the exercise of prayer he felt that their idle talk was evidently the cause of his losing fellowship with God. He could not well forbid his friends coming, and therefore he prepared himself for their injurious conversation by carefully stopping his ears with little wads of flax. He then buried his head deep in his cowl, and though exposed for an hour to their conversation, he heard nothing, and consequently suffered no injury. He spoke to each of them some few words for edification, and they went their way. We do not suppose that for: any great length of time he was much troubled with such visitors, for he must have been an uncommonly uninteresting companion. If people once discover that their clatter is lost upon you, they are not quite so eager to repeat the infliction.

We ace not admirers of Bernard’s monastic severity, but we wish it were possible to imitate his use of wool, in the spirit if not in the letter. We are all thrown in the way of persons who will talk; and their talk: has in it about as much solidify as the comet, of which we are told that a thousand square miles, if condensed and compressed, would go into a thimble or an acorn-cup. Cowper made an accurate computation of the value of ordinary conversation when he said, —

“Collect at ev’ning what the day brought forth,
Compress the sum into its solid worth,
And if it weigh the importance of a fly,
the scales are false, or algebra a lie.”

If it were of any use to these human fog-horns, whose noise so much disturbs gracious souls, we would reason with them: but, alas, it would be casting pearls before parrots, who would hop off with them, drop them, and come back to scream again. Still, though it may be wasted effort, we would tell them a little story, which we met with in a tiny book called “Gold Dust.” “‘ Mother,’ asked a child, ‘ since nothing is ever lost, where do all our thoughts go?’ ‘ to God,’ answered the mother, gravely, ‘ who remembers them for ever.’ ‘For ever!’ said the child; he leaned his head, and drawing closer to his mother, murmured, ‘I am frightened!’”

Do you triflers never feel frightened too? If go, permit this healthy fear to grow; and remember that idle words are worse than idle thoughts, for they lead others into evil, and murder good thoughts in those who else might have quietly meditated.

As the topics of conversation which are usually intruded upon devout minds are worthless, if not worse, the best way is to escape from them altogether; but when this is not possible; oh, would that the gift of deafness could be conferred upon us! Oh, to protect the drum of the ear with a plate of iron! Will no one invent us ear-shields? The process of letting chit-chat go in at one ear and out at the other is greatly injurious to the brain; and the mere passage of such traffic through the mind is painful to the spiritual man’s heart.. It would be a far better thing not to let it enter at all. Could we not manage, by determinedly introducing holy topics, to become as truly bores to the foolish talkers as the chatterboxes are to us? or, better still, could we not turn the flood of conversation into a profitable channel, and subdue wild tongues to some useful service, as men tame rushing rivulets and make them turn their mill-wheels? Oh, that it were possible!

How often, immediately after a holy service, where in heart and mind we have been carried to the top of tabor, so that we have beheld the transfiguration of all gracious truth, have we come down to the foot of the mountain to meet with very fools! they have inane remarks to offer upon the congregation, the faults of the singing, the mistakes of the preacher, or other worthless trifles. they behave as if, in the presence of God, and heaven, and hell, they found a fit place for acting the merry-andrew, and playing their fantastic tricks. If they have ever been in the presence of the King of kings, they have been more engrossed by the dust beneath his feet than with his majesty and glory. this dust they bring away, and throw into our eyes, so that with the pain thereof the holy vision vanishes away. Oh, that such beings should exist! the kites and ravens which pounced upon Abraham’s sacrifice the patriarch drove away; but these swoop down upon a sudden, and, despite our protests, they remain to rob the altars of God.

We are in our study, wrapt in holy meditation: woe unto us, for there is a knock at the door, and a person enters who cannot be denied admission. A draught of cold air seems to follow him into the room. Our devotion is chilled. He goes away, and it would seem as if the Master went out of the door at the same time. It may take us hours of earnest, seeking to find our Beloved again: the heavenly spell is broken, and we could weep scalding tears of regret that so much is lost without compensation and without reason. The senseless caller has not left a thought behind him worth throwing into the waste-basket. then have we sighed for “a lodge in some vast wilderness, some boundless contiguity of shade,” that sound of chattering talkatives might never reach us more.

We have sought solitude; we have stolen away from the haunts of men. into the congenial sphere of nature: holiness is written upon every leaf, and flower, and green blade; a solemn stillness girds us; our heart is ascending like the lark that rises from the field to heaven; our spirit is exhaling odors of gratitude and joy, like the fragrant perfume of the flowers around us; we feel fellowship with the Master when the Spirit led him into the wilderness: and lo! to complete the parallel, the devil appears to tempt us. He comes not in the form of the fiend himself, for then would we commence a sacred combat, in which, by God’s help, we would gain the victory; but he comes in the shape of a worldly acquaintance, uninvited, undesired. this said friend is well enough for a passing salute, and by no means so malicious as willfully to play the serpent in our Paradise: but just here and now! Oh Providence, thy wisdom is inscrutable! Why bring this being here? He, of all men! What want we with him? We might as well have met the boatswain of Barclay’s Ship of Fools. Oh, dear good creature, why stray you in this direction? Poor soul, what sent you here to do for my meditations what Newton’s dog Diamond did for the philosopher’s profound calculations when he overturned the candle and set the papers on a blaze? Yet here he is, and there is no hiding from him among the trees of the wood; we must beat’ his idle prattle as best we may. He cracks a senseless joke, and then chatters on with meaningless remarks upon the weather, and our own appearance, and our solitude, lie cannot be shaken off; he must rattle till he has run down. Sympathy with silence he never had, nor with sense either. Ah me! His thoughtless foot has trampled on our communion with Jesus; his idle talk has chased away the sacred Dove! It is our duty to pray for such spiritual Goths and Vandals; but among the petitions is one that we may be delivered from them. We have longed to be like Alexander Selkirk, on a desert island, with ten thousand leagues of impassable water, or fire if need be, between us and the distracting tongues of empty minds. Do you wonder that men have built cells for themselves amid the crags of Sinai, or have roamed over desert sands by the Red Sea shore, or have immured themselves in monasteries to escape from distractions? the restless scourge of vanity has whipped noble minds into an intolerance of men.

Why is it that devotion is so fair and frail a thing? Must it ever be so? Cannot meditation grow more robust? Alas, we fear that if holy contemplation grows within the sterile soil of our heart, it must always be a delicate exotic, liable to be withered by the first breath of earth’s sirocco? Shall we never come to be in such a condition that fellowship with God will be like the grass that grows in the meadows, which may be trodden on by a thousand travelers and yet will lift up its head again, and spread a carpet fit for the feet of angels? Surely there must be something radically wrong with us still: regenerating work cannot be so complete as it might be. If we were wholly renewed we. might traverse a market, and remain in heaven; pass through all the babble of contention’s tongues, and yet possess the peace of God which passeth all understanding; dwell in the tents of Kedar, and yet be as much alone with God as if every scoffer were a saint, and every fool an angel Shall we ever reach to this? the burning aspiration for it is the promise that; we shall. Let us struggle upwards till our absorption. into the love of Christ shall fill our ears with something better than wads of wool, and our communion with the heavenly shall make us like David when. he said, “I, as a deaf man, heard not.” till that comes it will be a sign of grace to be weary of that which is graceless. It will be a mark of wisdom to be impatient of the follies of human converse. It will be a sign of heavenliness if we can regard our disturbers with compassions, and lend ourselves to lift up these earthbound ones as well as ore’ own hearts. Even as the eagle is said to bear her young upon her wings, and soar upward with them toward the sun, we too, though burdened with the load, may yet learn to bear all companies, and all their converse, upward into fellowship with God.

PROFESSORS OF THE HIGHER LIFE

A METHODIST preacher of long experience (a doctor of divinity too). lately remarked in a Southern paper: “I have known hundreds of men and women, who made no pretensions to holiness, who had experienced no ‘second blessing,’ who had found no ‘new light,’ who sought no ‘ higher life,’ who, in fact, were just as pure, true, and holy in life and conversation as the best so-called ‘holiness people’ I ever saw, and not half so troublesome in the church.” there is nobody who can stir ‘up so many church rows, and keep them boiling so long, as your brother or sister who has received the “second blessing” and is. living the ‘“ higher life.” — New York Examiner.

On looking back through thirty years of church life we are compelled to come to the conclusion that the most unsatisfactory members we have ever had have been those who were most satisfied with themselves. One brother became so thoroughly sanctified that he could not live with his wife; and another had so clean escaped from sin of every sort that he quitted us all in disgust. We find in the Sunday-school, the Lay Preachers’-Association, the Christian Young Men’s meetings, and in all other forms of work, that as soon as any of the brethren or the sisters begin to brag about their holiness they become wholly useless, and before long the place that knew them. knows them no more. “Great cry and little wool” men are not very numerous among us, but we have a few now and then just by way or’ variety. — C. H. S.

ANECDOTES FROM THE PULPIT.

A LECTURE TO THE COLLEGE, BY C. H. SPURGEON.

(CONTINUED).

NO examples will have greater weight with you than those taken from among the Puritans, in whose steps it is our desire to walk, though, alas! we follow with feeble feet. Certain of them abounded in anecdotes and stories: Thomas Brooks is a signal instance of the wise and wealthy use of holy fancy. I put him first, because I reckon him to be the first in the special art which is now under consideration. He hath dust of gold; for even in the margins of his books there are sentences of exceeding preciousness, and hints at classic stories. His style is clear and full; he never so exceeds in illustration as to lose sight of his doctrine, His floods of metaphor never drown his meaning, but float it; upon their surface. If you have never read his works I almost envy you the joy of entering for the first time upon his “unsearchable Remedies,” Riches, trying his Precious communing with his “Mute Christian,” and enjoying his other masterly writings. Let me give you a taste of his quality in the way of anecdotes. Here are a few brief ones which lie almost upon the same page; but he so abounds with them that you may readily call scores of better ones for yourselves.

MR. WELCH WEEPING.

“A soul under special manifestations of love weeps that it can love Christ no more. Mr. Welch, a Suffolk minister, weeping at table, and being asked the reason of it, answered, it was because lie could love Christ no more. the true lovers of Christ; can never rise high enough in their love to Christ; they count a little love to be no love; great love to be but little; strong love to be but weak; and the highest love to be infinitely below the worth of Christ, the beauty and glory of Christ, the fullness, sweetness, and goodness of Christ. the top of their misery in this life is that they love so little, though they are so much beloved.”

SUBMISSIVE SILENCE

“Such was the silence of Philip the Second, King of Spain, that when his invincible Armada, that had been three years a-fitting, was lost, he gave command that all over Spain they should give thanks to God and the saints that it was no more grievous.”

FAVORITES SUBMITTING TO THEIR LORDS.

“When Teribazus, a noble Persian, was arrested, at first he drew his sword and defended himself; but when they charged him in the king’s name, and informed him that they came from the king, and were commanded to bring him to the king, he yielded willingly. Seneca persuaded his friend to bear his affliction quietly, because he was the emperor’s favorite, telling him that it was not lawful for him to complain whilst Caesar was his friend.. So saith the holy Christian, Oh, my soul, be quiet, be still; all is in love, all is a fruit of Divine favor.”

SIR PHILIP SYDNEY.

“A religious commander being shot in battle, when the wound was searched and the bullet cut out, some standing by pitying his pain, he replied, ‘ though! groan, yet I bless God I do not grumble.’ God allows his people to groan, though not to grumble.” Thomas Adams, the Conforming Puritan, whose sermons are full of rugged force and. profound meaning, never hesitated to insert a story when he felt that it would enforce his teaching. His starting-point is ever some Biblical sentence, or Scriptural history; and this he works out with much elaboration, bringing to it all the treasures of his mind. As Stowell says, “Fables, anecdotes, classical poetry, gems from the fathers and other old writers, are scattered over almost every page” His anecdotes are usually rough-and-ready ones, and might be compared to those of Latimer, only they are not so genial; their humor is generally grim and caustic. the following may serve as fair specimens : —

THE HUSBAND AND HIS WITTY’ WIFE.

“the husband told his wife that he had one ill quality, he was given to be angry without cause; she wittily replied that she would keep him from that fault, for she would give him cause enough. It is the folly of some that they will be offended without cause, to whom the world promises that they shall have causes enough. ‘ In the world ye shall have tribulation.’”

THE SERVANT AT THE SERMON.

“It is ordinary with many to commend the lecture to others’ ears, but few commend it; to their’ own hearts. It is morally true what the Christian tell truth relates: A servant coming from church praiseth the sermon to his master. He asks him what was the text. ‘..gay, quoth the servant, it was begun before I came in. What, then, was his conclusion? He answered, I came out before it was done But what said he in the midst? Indeed, I was asleep in the midst. Many crowd to get into the church, but make no room for the sermon to get into them.”

THE PICTURE OF A HORSE.

“One charged a painter to draw him equum volituntem, a trotting or prancing horse; and he (mistaking the word) drew him equum volutantem, a wallowing or tumbling horse, with his heels upward. Being brought home, and the bespeaker blaming his error; I would have him prancing, and you have made him tumbling, If that be all, quoth the painter, it is but turning the picture wrong side uppermost, and you have your desire. thus in their quodlibetical discourses they can but turn the lineaments, and the matter is as they would have it. I speak not this to disgrace all their learning, but their fruitless, needless disputes and arguments, who find themselves a tongue where the Scripture allows them none.”

THE PIRATE.

“As when the desperate pirate, ransacking and rifling a bottom, was told by the master, that though no law could touch him for the present, he should answer it at the day of judgment; replied, Nay, if I may stay so long ere I come to it, I will take thee and thy vessel too. A conceit wherewith too many land-thieves, oppressors, flatter themselves in their hearts, though they dare not utter it with their lips.” William Gurnall, the author of” the Christian in Complete Armor,” runs; surely have been a relater of pertinent stories in his sermons, since even in his set and solid writings they occur. Perhaps I need not have made the distinction between his writings and his preaching, for it appears from the preface that his” Christian in Complete Armor” was preached’ before it was printed. In vivid imagery every page of his famous book abounds, and whenever this is the case we are sure to light upon short narratives and striking incidents. He’ is as profuse in illustration as either Brooks, Watson, or Swinnock. Happy Lavenham to have been served by such a pastor. By the way, this “Complete Armor” is beyond all others a preacher’s book: I should think that more discourses have been suggested by it than by any other uninspired volume. I have often resorted to it when my own fire has been burning low, and I have seldom failed to find a glowing coal upon Gurnall’s hearth. John Newton said that if he might read only one book beside the Bible, he would choose “the Christian in Complete Armor,” and Cecil was of much the same opinion. J. C. Ryle has said of it, “You will often find in a line and a half some great truth, put so concisely, and yet so fully.. that you really marvel how so much thought could be got into so few words.” One or two stories from the early part of his great work must, suture our purpose.

THE BIRD SAFE IN A MAN’S BOSOM.

“A heathen could say, when a, bird (feared by a hawk) flew into his bosom, I will not betray thee unto thine enemy, seeing thou comest for sanctuary unto me.’ How much less will God yield up a soul unto its enemy, when it takes sanctuary in his Name, saying, ‘ Lord, I am hunted with such a temptation, dogged with such a lust; either thou must pardon it, or I am damned; mortify it, or I shall be a slave to it; take me into the bosom of thy love, for Christ’s sake; castle me in the arms of thy everlasting strength; it is in thy power to save me from, or give me up into, the hands of my enemy; I have no confidence in myself or any other; into thy hands I commit my cause, my life, and rely on thee.’ this dependence of a soul undoubtedly will awaken the almighty power of God for such a one’s defense: he hath sworn the greatest oath that can come out of his blessed lips, even by himself, that such as ‘ flee for refuge’ to hope in him shall have ‘strong consolation’: Hebrews 6 17, 18.”

THE PRINCE WITH HIS FAMILY IN DANGER.

“Suppose a king’s son should get out of a besieged city, where he hath left his wife and children (whom he loves as his own soul), and these all ready to die by sword or famine, if supply come not the sooner; could this prince, when arrived at his father’s house, please himself with the delights of the court, and forget the distress of his family? or rather would he not come post to his father (having their cries and groans always in his ears), and, before he ate or drank, do his errand to his father, and entreat him, if ever he loved him, that he would send all the force of his kingdom to raise the siege, rather than any of his dear relations should perish? Surely, sirs, though Christ be in the top of his preferment, and out of the storm in regard of his own person, yet his children, left behind in the midst of sin’s, Satan’s, and the world’s batteries, are in his heart, and shall not be forgotten a moment by him. the care he takes in our business appeared in the speedy dispatch he made of his Spirit to his apostles’ supply, which, as soon almost as he was warm in his seat at his Fathers right hand, he sent, to the incomparable comfort of his apostles and us that to this day, yea, to the end of the world, do or shall believe on him/’

JOHN CARELESS.

“When God honors a person to suffer for his truth, this is a great privilege: ‘ Unto you it is given not only to believe, but to suffer for his sake.’ God doth not use to give worthless gifts to his saints, there is some preciousness in it which a carnal eye cannot see. Faith, you will say, is a great gift; but perseverance greater, without which faith would be little worth, and perseverance in suffering is above both honorable. this made John Careless, an English martyr (who though he died not at the stake, yet in prison for Christ), say, ‘ Such an honor tis as angels are not permitted to have, therefore God forgive me mine unthankfulness.’”

MR. BENBRIDGE.

“Oh, how many die at the gallows as martyrs in the devil’s cause for felonies, rapes, and murders! He might withdraw his grace, and leave thee to thy own cowardice and unbelief, and then thou wouldest soon show thyself in thy colors. ‘I, he stoutest champions for Christ have been taught how weak they are if Christ steps aside. Some that have given great testimony of their faith and resolution in Christ’s cause, even to come so near dying for his name as to give themselves to be bound to the stake, and fire to be kindled upon them, yet their hearts have failed; as that holy man, Mr. Benbridge, in our English martyrology, who thrust the faggots from him, and cried out, ‘I recant, I recant!:’ Yet this man, when reinforced in his faith, and indued with power from above, was able, within the space of a week after that sad foil, to die at the stake cheerfully. He that once overcame death for us, ‘tis he that always overcame death in us.”

John Flavel is a name which I shall have to quote in another lecture, for he is the greatest in metaphor and allegory; but in the matter of anecdote }’,is preaching is a fine example. It was said of his ministry that he who was unaffected by it must either have had a very soft, head or a very hard heart. He had a fired of striking incidents, and a faculty of happy illustration, and as he was a man in whose manner cheerfulness was blended with solemnity, he was popular in the highest degree both at; home and abroad. He sought, out words which might suit the sailors of Dartmouth and farmers of Devon, and therefore he has left, behind him his “Navigation Spiritualized” and his” Husbandry Spiritualized,” a legacy for each of the two orders of men who plough the sea and the land. He was a man worth making a pilgrimage to ;hear. What a crime it was to silence his heaven- touched lips by the abominable Act of Uniformity! Instead of quoting several passages from his sermons, each one containing an anecdote, I have thought it as well to give a mass of stories as we find them in his prelections upon —

PROVIDENCE IN CONVERSION.

“A scrap of paper accidentally coming to view hath been used as an occasion of conversion. this was the case of a minister of Wales, who had two livings, hut took little care of either. He being at a fair, bought something at a peddler’s standing, and rent off a leaf of Sir. Perkins’ catechism to wrap it; in; and reading a line or two of it, God sent it home so as it did the work.”

“The marriage of a godly man into a carnal family hath been ordered by Providence for the conversion and salvation of many therein. thus we read, in the life of that renowned English worthy, Mr. John Bruen, that, in his second match, it was agreed that he should have one year’s diet in his mother-in-law’s house. During his abode there that year (saith Mr. Clark) the Lord was pleased by his means graciously to work upon her soul, as also upon his wife’s sister, and half-sister, their brothers, Mr. William and Mr. Thomas Fox, with one or two of the servants in that family.”

“Not only the reading of a book, or hearing of a minister, but (which is most remarkable’) the very mistake or forgetfulness of a minister hath been improved by Providence for this end and purpose. Augustine, once preaching to his congregation, forgot the argument which he first proposed, and fell upon the errors of the Manichees, beside his first intention; by which discourse he converted one Firmns, his auditor, who fell down at his feet weeping, and confessing he had lived a Manichee many years. Another I knew, who, going to preach, took up another Bible than that he had designed, in which not only missing his notes, but the chapter also in which his text lay, he was put to some loss thereby; but after a short pause he resolved to speak to any other Scripture that might be presented to him, and accordingly read the text, ‘ the Lord is not slack concerning his promise’ (2 Peter 3:2); and though he had nothing prepared, yet the Lord helped him to speak both methodically and pertinently from it; by which discourse a gracious change was wrought upon one in the congregation, who hath since given good evidence of a sound conversation, and acknowledged this sermon to be the first and only means thereof.” “Going to hear s, sermon in jest hath proved some men’s conversion in earnest. Mr. Firmin, in his ‘Real Christian,’ tells us of a notorious drunkard, whom the drunkards called ‘Father,’ that one day would needs go to hear what Wilson said, out of no other design, it seems, but to scoff at the holy man; but in the. prayer before sermon, his heart began to thaw, and when he read his text, which was, ‘Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee’ (John 5:14), he could not contain; and in that sermon the Lord changed his heart, though formerly so bitter an enemy that the minister on lecture-days was afraid to go to church, before his shop door.’ Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how small a portion, is known of him?….

George Swinnock, for some years chaplain to Hampden, had the gift of illustration largely developed, as his works prove. Some of his similes are far-fetched, and the growth of knowledge has rendered certain of them obsolete; but they served his purpose, and made his teaching attractive. After deducting all his fancies which in the present age would be judged to be strained, there remains “a rare amount of sanctified wit and wisdom”; and sparkling here and there we spy out a few telling stories, mostly of classic origin.

THE. PRAYER OF PAULINUS

“It was the speech of Paulinus, when his city was taken by the barbarians, Domine, ne excrucier ob aurum et argentum: ‘ Lord, let me not be troubled for my silver and gold which I have lost, for thou art all things.’ As Noah, when. the whole world was overwhelmed with water, had a fair epitome of it in the ark, having all sorts of beasts and fowls there; so he that in a deluge hath God to be his God, hath the original of all mercies. He who enjoyeth the ocean may rejoice, though some drops are taken from him.”

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE MILKMAID.

“Queen Elizabeth envied the milkmaid when she was in prison; but had site known the glorious reign which she was to have for forty-four years, she would not have repined at the poor happiness of so mean a person. Christians are too prone to envy the husks which wandering sinners fill themselves with here below; but would they set before them their glorious hopes of a heaven, how they must reign with Christ for ever and ever, they would see little reason for their repining.”

THE BELIEVING CHILD.

“I have read a story of a little child about eight or nine years old, that being extremely pinched with hunger, looked one day pitifully necessitous on her mother, and said., ‘ Mother, do you think that God will starve us? ‘ the mother answered, ‘No, child, he will not’ the child replied, ‘But if he do, yet we. must love him and serve him.’ Here was language that spake a well-grown Christian. For indeed God brings us to want and misery, to try us whether we love him for his own sake, or for our own sakes; for those excellencies that are in him, or for those mercies we have from hint; to see whether we will say with the cynic to Antisthenes, Nullus tam durus erit baculus, etc.’ there should be’ no cudgel so, crabbed as to heat me from thee.’”

FASHIONABLE RELIGION

“I have read of a popish lady in Paris, that when she saw a glorious procession to one of their saints, cried out, Oh, how fine is our religion beyond that of the Huguenots! — they have a mean and beggarly religion, but ours is full of bravery and solemnity. But as heralds say of a coat of arms, if it be full of gays and devices, it speaks a mean descent; so truly that manner of worship which is mingled with men’s inventions speaks its descent to be mean — namely, from man.”

THE BUSY DUKE

“The French Duke d’Alva could say, when he was asked by Henry the Fourth whether he had seen the eclipse of the sun, that he had so much business to do upon earth, that he has no time to look up to heaven. Sure I am, the Christian may say with more truth and conscience, that he hath so much business to do for heaven, that he hath no time to mind vain or earthly things.

THOMAS WATSON was one of the many Puritan preachers who won the popular ear by their frequent illustrations. In the clear flowing stream of his teaching we find pearls of anecdote very frequently. No one ever grew weary under such pleasant yet weighty discourse as that which we find in his “Beatitudes.” Let two quotations serve to show his skill.

THE VESTAL AND THE BRACELETS

“Most men think:, because God hath blessed them with an estate, therefore they are blessed. Alas! God often gives these things in anger: He loads his enemies with gold and silver; as Plutarch reports of Tarpeia, a Vestal nun, who bargained with the enemy to betray the Capital of Rome to them, in case she might have the golden bracelets on their left hands, which they promised; and being entered into the Capitol, they threw not only their bracelets, but their bucklers, too, upon her, through the weight whereof she was pressed to death. God often lets men have the golden bracelets of worldly substance, the weight whereof sinks them into hell. Oh, let us superna anhelare, get our eyes ‘fixed’ and our hearts ‘ united’ to God the, supreme good; this is to pursue blessedness as in a Chase.”

HEDGEHOG AND CONIES

“The Fabulist tells a story of the hedgehog that came to the coney-burrows in stormy weather, and desired harbor, promising that he would be a quiet guest; but when once he had gotten entertainment, he did set up his prickles, and did never leave till he had thurst the poor conies out of their burrows: so covetousness, though it hath many fair pleas to insinuate, and wind itself into the heart, yet as soon as you have let it in, this thorn will never cease pricking till it hath choked all good beginnings, and thrust all religion out of your hearts.”

I think this must suffice to represent the men of the Paritanic period, who added to their profound theology and varied learning a zeal to be understood, and a skill in setting forth truth by the help of everyday occurrences. the age which followed them was barren of spiritual life, and was afflicted by a race of rhetorical divines, whose words had little connection with the Word of life. the scanty thought of the Queen Anne dignitaries needed no aid of metaphor or parable; there was nothing to explain to the people: the utmost endeavor of these divines was to hide the nakedness of their discourses with the fig-leaves of Latinized verbiage. Living preaching was gone, spiritual life was gone, and consequently a pulpit was set up which had no voice for the common people; no voice, indeed, for anybody except the mere formalist, who is content if decorum be observed and respectability maintained. Of course, our notion of making truth clear by stories did not suit the dignified death of the period, and it was only when the dry bones began to be stirred that the popular method was again brought to the front.

The illustrious George Whitefield stands, with Wesley, at the head of that noble army who led the Revival of the last century. It is not at this present any part of my plan to speak of his matchless eloquence, unquenchable earnestness, and incessant labor; but it is quite according to the run of my lecture to remind you of his own saying, — “ I use market language.” He employed pure, good, flowing English; but he was as simple as if he spoke to children. Although by no means abounding in illustration, yet he always employed it when needed, and he narrated incidents with great power of action and emphasis. His stories were so told that they thrilled the people: they saw as well as heard, for each word had its proper gesture. One reason why he could be understood at so great a distance was the fact that the eye helped the ear. As specimens of his anecdotes I have selected these which follow : —

THE TWO CHAPLAINS.

“You cannot do without the grace of God when you come to die. there was a nobleman that kept a deistical chaplain, and his lady a Christian one; when he was dying, he says to his chaplain — ‘ I liked you very well when I was in health; but it is my lady’s chaplain I must have when I am sick.’”

NEVER SATISFIED.

“My dear hearers, there is not a single soul of you all that are satisfied in your stations: is not the language of your hearts when apprentices, — We think we shall do very well when journeymen; when journeymen, that we should do very well when masters; when single, that we shall do well when married; and to be sure you think you shall do well when you keep a carriage. I have heard ,of one who began low: he first wanted a house; than, says he, ‘ 1 want two, then four, then six’; and when he. had them, he said, ‘ I think I want nothing else.’ ‘ Yes,’ says his friend, ‘ you will soon want another thing, that is, a hearse-and-six to carry you to your grave’; and that made him tremble.”

DR. MANTON’S HEART.

“A good woman, who was charmed with Dr. Manton, said, ‘ Oh, sir, you have made an excellent sermon to-day; I wish I had your heart.’ ‘ Do you so? ‘ said he, ‘ good woman; you had better not wish for it; for if you had it, you would wish for your own again.’ the best of men see themselves in the worst light.”

Fearing that the quotation of any more examples might prove tedious, I would only remind you that such men as Berridge, Rowland Hill, Matthew Wilks, Christmas Evans, William Jay, and others who have but lately departed from us, owed much of their attractiveness to the way in which they aroused their audiences, and flashed truth into their faces by well-chosen anecdotes time calls upon me to have done, and how can I come to a better close than by mentioning one living man, who, above all others, has in two continents stirred the masses of the people: I refer to D. L. Moody. this admirable brother has a great aversion to the printing of his sermons; and well he may have, for he is incessantly preaching, and has no time allowed him for the preparation of fresh discourses; and therefore it would be great unwisdom on his part to print at once these addresses with which he is working through a campaign. We hope, however, that when he has done with a sermon he will never suffer it to die out, but give it to the church and to the world through the press. Our esteemed brother has a lively, telling style, and he thinks it wise frequently to fasten a nail with the hammer of anecdote. Here are four or five extracts from the little book entitled, “Arrows and Anecdotes,” by D. L. Moody. By John Lobb : —

THE IDIOT’S MOTHER.

“I know a mother who has an idiot child. For it she gave up all society almost everything, and devoted her whole life to it. ‘And now,’ said she, ‘for fourteen years I have tended it and loved it, and it does not even know me. Oh! it is breaking my heart!’ Oh! how the Lord must say this of hundreds here. Jesus comes here, and goes from seat to seat, asking if there is a place for him. Oh! will not some of you take him into your hearts?”

SURGEON AND ‘PATIENT

“When I was in Belfast I knew a doctor who had a friend a leading surgeon there, and he told me that the surgeon’s custom was, before performing any operation, to say to the patient; ‘ take a good look at the wound, and then fix your eyes on me, and don’t take them off till I get through the operation.’ 1 thought at the time that was a good illustration. Sinner, take a good look at the wound to-night, and then fix your eyes on Christ, and don’t take them off. It is better to look at the remedy than at the wound.”

THE ORPHAN’S PRAYER.

“A little child, whose father and mother had died, was taken into another family. the first night she asked if she could pray, as she used to do. they said, ‘ Oh, yes.’ So she knelt down, and prayed as her mother had taught her: and, when that was ended, she added a little prayer of her own: ‘ Oh, God, make these people as kind to me as father and mother were.’ then she paused, and looked up, as if expecting the answer, and added: ‘ Of course he will.’ How sweetly simple was that little one’s faith; she expected God to ‘do,’ and, of course, she got her request.”

THE ROLL CALL

“A soldier lay on his dying couch during our last war, and they heard him say, ‘ Here!’ they asked him what he wanted, and he put up his hand and said: ‘ Hush! they are calling the roll of heaven, and I am answering to my name’; and presently he whispered: ‘ Here! ‘ and he was gone.”

NO HOME BEYOND THE GRAVE.

“I have been told of a wealthy man who died recently. Death came unexpectedly to him, as it almost always does; and he sent out for his lawyer to draw his ‘will. And lie went on willing away his property; and when he came to his wife and child, he said he wanted them to have the home. But the little child didn’t understand what death was. She was standing near, and she said, ‘ Papa, have you got a home in that land you are going to?’ the arrow reached that heart; but it was too late. He saw his mistake. He had got no, home beyond the grave.”

I will weary you no longer. You may safely do what the most useful of men have done before you. Copy them, not only in their use of illustration, but in their wisely keeping it in subservience to their design. they were not story-tellers, but preachers of the gospel; they did not aim at the entertainment of the people, but at their conversion. Never did they go out of their way to drag in a telling bit which they had been saving up for display, and never could anyone say of their illustrations that they were

“Windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.”

Keep you the due proportion of things, lest I do worse than lose my labor, by becoming the cause of your presenting to the people strings of anecdotes instead of sound doctrines; for that would be as evil a thing as if you offered to hungry men flowers instead of bread, and gave to the naked gauze of gossamer instead of woolen doth.

Erect a beacon on your sickness, and let the soft, sweet light of patience and resignation shine therefrom. Kindle a light upon the supposed disadvantage of your obscurity, and let your humble self-abnegation and content appear to Jesus’s praise.

Your very poverty, or ignorance, or former wickedness, may be made the means of leading others to Him who receiveth sinners and eateth with them. May the good Spirit help us in this matter. God’s grace builds lighthouses on sunken rocks, and paints rainbows on the blackest clouds. Our great Captain can so train his soldiers that even their left-handedness shall redound to the glory of His right hand and holy name. Let every reader say, “Amen.”

I find that in all probability many of these left-handed Benjamites were able to use both hands equally well; but as there is neither time nor space just; now to speak of this, I will reserve for the next paper some few remarks on “Both-handed Men.”

NO PAY NO PLAY

At Brighton such a company of outsiders follow the foxhounds that it is found needful to give no further public announcements of the meets, and instead thereof to send private intimations to subscribers only.. the world deals out a sort of rough justice, and endeavors to shut out those who share the play but not the pay. We have plenty of these gentlemen in the religious world, and it is our impression that the great, Lord of all things carries out much the same regulation. those who neither contribute of substance, time, or labor to the cause of God are never happy Christians: they never share in the secret jots of the truly consecrated, they have no idea of the peculiar delights of hearts devoted to the Redeemer’s service. May not this account for much of the doubting and fearing which is abroad, and for the despondency of many professors? As they do not work, neither shall they eat. they give little and receive little. — C. H. S.

LIVE ABODE FEELINGS

PAYING a pastoral visit to a brother who was gradually melting away, we said to him, “Dear friend, it may be that when this disease has greatly weakened you, your spirits will fall, and you will think that your faith is giving way. Do not be cast down by your feelings.” His answer was most satisfactory, for he replied, “No, sir, I am in no danger of that, for when I have had the most joyful feelings, I never rested in them. You have taught me that a soul can only lean on eternal verities, and these I know come from the mouth of God, and never from the changing feelings of the flesh.” Yes, that is it. Do not rise upon feelings, and you will not sink under them. Keep to believing: rest all your weight on the promises of God, and when heart and flesh fail, God will be the strength of your life, and your portion for ever. —C.H.S.

NOTES

On Monday evening April 2, additional interest was given to the missionary prayer-meeting by the presence of some friends connected with the China Inland Mission. Mr. J. Hudson Taylor, who had just returned to England after several years’ absence in China, asked the prayers of the church for Mr.. George Nicoll, a missionary who is returning to his work in the Celestial Empire; and Mr. B. Broomhall requested a like favor for Mr. Wood, who had been accepted as one of the agents of the Mission. Both the brethren, spoke, and earnest petition:.:; were presented, not only for China’s millions, but also for the success of all missionaries, both in the foreign field and at home. Should not individual believers be stirred to weekly prayer and giving? We are wearied with statistics as to what can be done with a penny a week. Oh, that all our members would give it a year’s trial!

On Tuesday evening, April 8, the annual meeting of the Metropolitan tabernacle Sunday-school was held in the Lecture Hall, Pastor C. H. Spurgeon in the chair. A printed report was issued, showing that out of 1,405 scholars on the books 314 are over fifteen years of age, and 157 are in the infant classes; 108 are church members, 21 having joined during the past year. the average attendance is, teachers : — Morning, 60; afternoon, 92; Scholars : — Morning, 416; afternoon, 1,044. there are eight Bibleclasses, with attendances varying front 30 to 60, also children’s services, prayer-meetings for teachers and scholars, a magazine department, Band of Hope, Dorcas Society, Young Christians’ Association, and Mutual Improvement Society. the sum of £150 18s. 6½d. was raised during the year for missionary purposes, in addition to £50 from Mr. Wigney’s Bibleclass: 815 scholars and teachers have joined the Bible Reading Union. and out of 85 scholars who entered for the annual scholars’ examination 52 obtained certificates, and eight prizes. Mr. Spurgeon, in the course of his remarks, said: there is much need at the present time for every form of Christian work. Sunday-school teaching was a work calculated to do much good. teachers should not leave their scholars in ignorance, but seek to obtain their religious affection, so that the softened heart might retain the words that fell from the teachers’ lips. the teachers’ work does not lessen the parents’ responsibility. Earnestness and prayerfulness are wanted, and if these means are used, and the child is brought up in the way he should go, conversion is almost sure to be the result.. May all scholars in the school be led to the Savior’s feet. Addresses were given by Messrs. t. H. Olney, W. Mountain, T. Heyland, S. Wigney, and C. Waters; and £20 was collected towards replenishing the Scholars’ library.

COLLEGE. — Mr. I. Bridge, formerly of Waterbeach, has gone to Kirtonin-Lindsey, Lineolnshire, a church which needs to find a friend who would contribute £20 or £30 a year to keep it going. Mr. Bridge is so devoted to his Lord’s work that he has gone, though we cannot see how he is to be adequately supported. Mr. W. Julyan has removed, from Cheltenham to Bournemouth; and Mr. J. Wilkins, who recently returned from America, has settled at Swaffham, Norfolk.

Any friends who can assist Mr. Stone in his work at Nottingham may rest assured that their help is greatly needed and richly deserved. Our friend has had to struggle against many difficulties, and has bravely held on his way. Just now he has to bear the extra burden of raising nearly £1,000 for painting, cleaning, repairs, etc., and with a heavy debt: on the place this will be a severe task unless the Lord’s stewards liberally aid him. We have done and shall still do all we can for him. but so many look to us that our resources are taxed to their utmost. It would be a great joy to us to see the Nottingham tabernacle wholly freed from debt, so that: the church might direct all its energies to the development of the mission-stations which Mr. Stone has started in the surrounding districts. No church within the range of our knowledge more truly deserves aid than this work at Nottingham.

CONFERENCE. — the Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Pastors’ College Association was held, as announced, in the week commencing Monday, April 16th, and writing these “Notes” immediately after the close of the meetings we can truly say that, notwithstanding the great disappointment and. sorrow caused by the President’s absence from all the meetings, after the Monday night, the; Conference of 1883 will compare most favorably with all that preceded it. On former occasions the President has been once or twice taken ill before the end of the week, but newer until this year has he been prevented from delivering his inaugural address, or presenting the annual report at the subscribers’ supper.. His disappointment at being laid aside just When it seemed that he was most needed was keen indeed, but as the tidings arrived day after day that the meetings were quite up to the usual standard, that the interest was unflagging, the liberality of the subscribers as great am ever, and the presence and blessing of the Lord most manifest in every part of the proceedings, what could he do but praise and magnify the grace of God which was thus signally vouchsafed? The assembly of 1883 will be remembered in days to come as the dark-bright Conference — dark, because of the sickness and sorrow that came like a black cloud to hide the sun; and bright, because of the mercies and favors that our gracious Master poured out in such generous abundance. Again has he proved in our experience that he doeth all things well.

This year, instead of the opening prayer-meeting on the Monday afternoon being held at the College, it was transferred to the same place as the tea and public meet-tug, for which an invitation had been received from Pastor W. Hobbs and the church at Gipsy-road, Lower Norwood. As the result of this alteration, the attendance was much larger than has been usual at the afternoon meetings in former years. Our venerable friend, Professor Rogers, presided; and many fervent petitions for a blessing upon the week’s proceedings were presented at the throne of grace. At the tea in the school-room the brethren had the joy of welcoming not only their President, but also Mrs. Spurgeon, who was as happy to see them as they were to look upon her. After the meal, hearty words of welcome-and thanks were uttered, and then we adjourned to the chapel for the public meeting. This was a smaller assembly than we have had on previous occasions, but there was a clear gospel ring about every speech, and the whole gathering was a fitting commencement of the week’s program. Addresses were delivered by the President, and Pastors W. Whale (Middlesbro’), W. E. Rice (Earl’s Colne), and W. Hackney (Oxford). All who were present were grieved to see the President suffering great pain in one of his hands, but rejoiced that he was able to speak with all his wonted fervor and force. At the tabernacle the Vice-President occupied the chair at the regular prayer-meeting, which was largely attended by ministers from the country. Several of the brethren offered prayer, and Pastor t. W. Medhurst (Lake-road, Landport), delivered an able address.

On Tuesday morning, April 17, the ministers and students met in the College Lecture-hall in larger numbers than on any previous occasion. After the opening hymn the Vice-President, who occupied the chair in his brother’s absence, read the following letter : —

“Dear Brethren, — After a night of extreme pain, I find myself unable to leave my bed to-day — at least, I fear so. I am bitterly disappointed; but as I have had no hand in it, 1 must yield myself to our Great Father’s will. May the presence and power of the Holy Spirit be with you all day long. If I find at any time that I am recovering:, I shall set out for your Conference at once, and may appear at any time. Meanwhile, I shall be glad if the Vice President will kindly go on with any part of the program which may be ready. When such a sad Providence intervenes we must make the best of it. I am somewhat in hopes that the attack is so sharp that it cannot last long. It is furiously upon me at this moment. — Your suffering President,

“C. H. SPURGEON.” the sincerest sympathy of the whole assembly was evoked by this sad communication, and the most fervent prayers were offered for the speedy recovery of the Lord’s suffering servant. It did not please our heavenly Father to grant all the petitions that were presented, and yet we are sure that they were heard in heaven, and that as far as it was good for us they were answered. At; the close of the season of supplication the Vice-President carried out his brother’s request, as far as possible, by delivering at once his address founded upon the words of our Lord to John the Baptist, “Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” It was a timely message, and though uttered before the speaker had the opportunity of preparing as carefully as he had intended, those who heard it felt that it could scarcely have been improved by any amount of additional study and thought. Before dispersing for a brief recess it was resolved that the following telegram should be sent to our beloved President : — “ We suffer with you. We arm greatly disappointed, but trust it will only be for a while. Our prayers are, multiplied for you,”

On reassembling, Professor Gracey read his ‘wise and weighty paper on “Faith,” after which the business of the Conference was transacted. the principal items of general interest were as follows : — the deaths of one minister and one student were reported, the names of twenty-six students who have been. more than six months in the College were added to the, roll, and three names were for various reasons removed. Mr. Allison’s report of the Assurance Community showed that the total payments had amounted to £71 2s., and that the balance in hand was £6 15s. 6d. Our friend was heartily thanked for his management of the fund, and consented to continue his kind services during the ensuing year. Brethren who have not pall their subscription,; should at; once send 5s. to Mr. Allison at the Tabernacle, that they may be entitled to the benefits of the fund should death enter their homes during the year. It was agreed that MONDAY, JUNE 18th should be set apart for special united prayer by all the churches connected with the Conference. the. letter from the Australian brethren, which is printed in the report, was read, and also the following communication from the Canadian branch of our Association, which arrived just too late to be published in the proper place : —

“Toronto, March 29, 1883. “to the Brethren of the Pastors’ College in Conference Assembled. “From the Brethren in Canada.

“Dear Brethren, — It again becomes our pleasing duty to send our annual greetings, and wish you all grace and wisdom in your Conference, and that you may return to your various fields of labor encouraged, strengthened, and abundantly blessed.

“To ,every one of us it would be a privilege of exceeding value to be permitted to meet with you, with our beloved tutors, and above all with our greatly honored President, who dwells in our hearts, and for whom we cease not to give thanks, that we have known him in the flesh, and have sat as his feet.

Changes, in nearly every case for the better, have marked the year now closing. Brother Joseph Forth has removed from London to Dresden; Brother C. A. Cook from Kingston to Parliament Street, Toronto; Brother Robert Holmes from Aylmer to College Street, Toronto; Brother Jesse Gibson from Plattsville to Portage La Prairie, Manitoba; Brother W. W. Willis from Coilingwood to Colebrook, Ohio, U.S., and the writer from the College Street Church in this city to the management of the Standard Publishing Company, created by the munificence of Senator McMaster as the publishing society of the Denomination in Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. Brother H. F. Adams, having changed his views on the Communion question, has resigned the pastorate of the open-communion church, Quebec, and has accepted an invitation as supply, with a view to the pastorate of the Regular Baptist Church, Mount Vernon, Ohio, U.S. Brethren James Grant, Robert Lennie, and Henry Cox remain in the same fields of labor at Paris, Dundas, and Leamington.

“It will be, a joy to you to know that our brethren have all kept resolutely in the ‘ old paths;’ and that they are known everywhere as lovers of the gospel and preachers thereof, with manifest tokens of the Master’s approval.

“We hear frequently that the ranks of the ministry are over-full in England, and that sometimes good men find it difficult to secure suitable fields of labor. If such be the case, we would say that there is plenty of room and a right royal welcome here for brethren of good education, respectable pulpit gifts, and sincere piety, whose names have never been sullied by folly or sin; and whose convictions in reference to open-communion are not such that they must ever make it a bone of contention and a cause of offense. But if there are brethren who are so strong on this question, that they must run against the close-communion wall on every occasion, much to the injury — not of the wall, but of their own heads, we would say — well, we would say to such: — ‘ try some place on the other side of the world, Australia for instance.’ For, rightly or wrongly, the communion question is so settled on, this continent, that even a Robert Hall could not turn the shadow back on the dial of Ahaz.

“Rejoicing that time and distance, cannot weaken, much less break, the bonds which unite us together, we remain, in behalf of the Canadian Branch of the Pastors’ College Association,

“Yours in the service of the Gospel, “S, A. DYKE, President for 1883. “JAMES GRANT, Secretary.”

Dinner was served at the tabernacle, and the mention of that fact leads us to record our deep indebtedness to our devoted deacon, Mr. Murrell, for all his care, of the brethren during the week. It is no easy matter to provide dinner and tea for three or four hundred ministers on four successive days, in addition to arranging for the subscribers’ supper one evening, and the ministers and students’ feast the next night, but with the help of his many coworkers, Mr. Murrell does the whole business in first-rate style, and he richly deserves the hearty thanks that were presented to him during the meetings.

Tuesday evening is usually spent at the Orphanage, in order to still further strengthen the bonds of friendship that exist between that institution and the College. After tea the sweet singers and clever hand-bell ringers provided a most enjoyable entertainment, in the course of which appropriate addresses were delivered by the Vice-President, and Pastor A. G. Brown (East London tabernacle), and the day’s proceedings were pleasantly closed by an exhibition of Pastor Charles Spurgeon’s beautiful dissolving views of his American tour, for which he was heartily thanked in the name of all the brethren.

On Wednesday morning, April 18th, the ‘news of our President continued sickness filled us with grief, and tidings also reached us that the wife of our much-loved brother Gango, of Bristol, had been called home. Heartfelt supplications ascended both for the afflicted and the bereaved; and after the reading and exposition of Psalm 132. by our venerable tutor, Professor Rogers, all who were present were delighted to listen to our honored friend, Dr. Stanford, as he in his own unique style explained and applied the words of our Lord to the first preachers of the gospel — “ I give you a mouth and wisdom.” Pastor W. J. Styles (Keppel-street) next followed with a valuable paper upon “Conversion, and its Counterfeit?’ and the remainder of the morning Was occupied with interesting accounts of foreign work given by Pastor W. Norris (of Calcutta), and Mr. J. J. turner, who was until recently connected with the China Inland Mission. In the evening the subscribers and friends of the College met for tea, and afterwards assembled for the annual meeting, under the presidency of John Houghton, Esq., of Liverpool. All were grieved that the President was unable to be present, and he was equally sorry to miss the opportunity of personally thanking his many generous helpers for their continued liberality to this branch of the Lord’s work under his care. In his absence the report of the year’s work was presented by the Vice-President, and addresses were delivered by the Chairman, Pastors R. J. Middleton (Great torrington), C.T. Johnson (Longton), F. E. Blackaby (Stow-on-the. Wold), and $. Glover (Coorobe Martin), and our missionary brethren, W. Norris, J. J. turner, and A. Billington, who in turn pleaded for India, China, and Africa. the company then adjourned to the tabernacle Lecture-ball, to partake of the supper given by Mr. Spurgeon and two or three friends, and prepared by Mr. Murrell and his assistants. When the list of donations and promises was completed, it was found that the contributions amounted to £2,073 18s. the gifts of friends unable to be present brought up the total to £2,100 — truly a noble sum, for which we heartily thank every donor, while we bless the name of the Lord who moved them thus to cheer and help us.

On Thursday morning, April 19, after a time of earnest wrestling with God in prayer, Professor Rogers briefly but forcibly addressed the assembly, Pastor J. Hillman (Hampden Chapel, Hackney) read a useful paper on ‘Persistency in our Work,” and Pastor W. Anderson (Reading)read his searching, scriptural, spiritual essay on “the Christian minister’s dependence upon the Holy Spirit.” At the dinner-table it was resolved that the grateful thanks of the brethren should be forwarded to Mrs. Spurgeon for her kind gift of the President’s new book, “Illustrations and Meditations,” with the assurance of the heartfelt sympathy of every member of the Conference, and their united prayers for the speedy restoration to health of their honored President; and his beloved wife. (Any of our brethren who were unable to be present can obtain the book by writing to Mrs. Spurgeon, and enclosing four stamps for postage).

The annual public meeting, in the tabernacle, in the evening, was one of the largest and best ever held. the Vice-President presided, and again gave a resume; of the work of the year; addresses were delivered by Professor Fergusson, and Pastors G. Samuel (Birmingham), t. J. Longhurst (Cheltenham), W. J. Mayers (Bristol), and t. G. tarn (Cambridge); brethren Mayers and Parker led us in sacred song; and Pastor C. Spurgeon, in the name of his father and of the whole Conference, thanked the Vice President for his invaluable services in the specially trying circumstances of the week. the ministers and students were then entertained at supper in the usual bountiful manner, and on their behalf the deacons of the tabernacle church were assured of the deep gratitude of every brother for all their services to the College. After Messrs. Murrell and Carr had suitably responded, sentiments of hearty congratulation and loving welcome to Mrs. James Spurgeon were expressed by two of the pastors, and acknowledged by the Vice-President.

On -Friday morning, April 20, after a season of earnest prayer, the following letters from the President and Mrs. Spurgeon were read : —

‘DEAR BRETHREN — I send my hearty love to one and all of you. I am very grateful to all who have done so much to make the Conference a success. I feel as if I had double reason for praising and blessing God. If I had one reason for complaining that I was not allowed to come, I seem to have two reasons for rejoicing that although I did not come the blessing came all the same, and it does not matter what becomes of me so long as you get blessed. I hope I shall meet the whole of you in a hundred years’ time.

“‘You’ll not be in glory
And leave me behind.’
God bless you all for ever.
So prays,

Your President and Friend,

‘C. H.. SPURGEON.”

DEAR BRETHREN— I rejoice in the sweet message you have, sent to me, and thank you for receiving my little present so lovingly. May the book be s, choice companion to you throughout the year, and a true helpmeet in your work. “I think you will delight to walk in this Puritan garden, for it is a place of fragrance and beauty’, and “Supposing Him to be the Gardener,’ it is likely you may there often meet with your Lord. “Of the great loss you have sustained, in our President’s absence from Conference, I can scarcely speak. It has been a bitter grief to me — to you it must have been an overwhelming disappointment, yet the Lord has in his own gracious and wonderful way given you some compensation in the exceeding blessing he has poured out on your meetings, and, may it not be that the fervent prayers evoked by this sorrow may be answered by some totally unexpected acts of grace? From the sick-bed of a suffering President there come many voices of entreaty to his noble band of preachers, but I think the loudest and most importunate is that of Paul to timothy, ‘Preach the word, be instant in season, and out of season be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.’

‘Pardon me that I cannot more worthily reply’ to your graceful message, but believe that in all loving sympathy and sincere respect, I am ever

“Your devoted friend,

“S. SPURGEON.,

The Vice-President was again graciously helped to take his brother’s place by preaching from Malachi 3:3. then followed the communion, and our closing hymn, commencing—

“Pray that Jerusalem may have,

Peace am! felicity;” sung to the tune “Martyrdom” by the whole band of brothers standing with hands linked in token of our union with our one Lord and with one another.

At the farewell dinner our faithful Remembrancer, Pastor F. H. White, reported that 187 pastors had collected or contributed £608 towards the College funds shine the last Conference — an increase of more than £100 over the previous year. the Vice-President touchingly alluded to the great loss the College had sustained by the deaths of Deacons Higgs and Mills, and cordially thanked all who had helped to ensure the success of the Conference. Messrs. Charles-worth, Murrell, Gracey, Fergusson, and Marchant briefly spoke, and the Conference was appropriately closed with the doxology and benediction.

EVANGELISTS.—Messrs. Smith and Fullerton have conducted a most successful three weeks’ mission at Hull during the past month. A local paper in reporting the opening services thus describes the evangelists:— ”That Messrs. Fullerton and Smith are men who, to use a vulgar phrase, are ‘cut out’ for their work cannot be doubted. they are of the type of preachers whom ‘the common people’ must always hear gladly, men of intense earnestness and power, not remarkable, perhaps, for profound learning, but possessing wide Biblical knowledge, a fine appreciation of many phases of human character, and a wealth of natural eloquence which their somewhat. rugged provincial dialect does not diminish Had they not been so prominently introduced as coming from the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, in whose Pastors’ College they have received much of their training, they might easily have been pronounced as of Mr. Spurgeon’s ‘school,’ both from their style of preaching and the doctrine they teach.”

Later reports convey the cheering news that much blessing has rested upon the work. During the first fortnight in this month our brethren are to be at Chesterfield, in response to an invitation from all the Nonconformist churches, and on the 20th they are to visit Maidenhead.

Up to the present time we have received for sermons to be distributed at the evangelists’ services £26 15s. 6d., and expended £25.

Mr. Higgins, who was the pioneer of the Society of Evangelists, sends us a good report of Mr. Burnham’s services at Melbourne, Cambs., and Mr. Middleton forwards equally welcome tidings of our brother’s visit to Great Torrington, Devon. So many persons have derived spiritual benefit from the meetings that Mr. Burnham has promised to go again in July for a fortnight of tent services. From Torrington he went next to Lyme Regis, and thence home for the Conference. this month he is to be at Poole.

Mr. Frank Russell has conducted special services at Godstone and West Drayton,

with cheering results.

ORPHANAGE.—Special Preliminary Notice. —Will all our friends kindly note that the Annual Fete will (D.V.) be held on Tuesday, June 19th, the President’s birthday? those of our helpers from the country who will be in town for the Handel Festival may be glad to know where they can spend one of the off-days between the musical performances at the Crystal Palace. We hope a large number of our friends will, as usual, attend the Stockwell Orphanage Festival. We expect on this occasion to be ready for the laying of the memorial-stone of the next block of buildings, which will comprise the head- master’s house and the necessary premises for the accommodation of the working and teaching staff. In addition to our usual anniversary program we are arranging for an interesting and instructive exhibition of engravings of scenes connected with the history of the Protestant Reformation in our own land and on the Continent

What, some of our young friends are doing. —Some time ago two little ladies at Penzance sent us the proceeds of a sale of work in their garden. During the past month they have had another meeting, which was held in the schoolroom of the chapel: some friends helped them by giving a tea, so that altogether they were able to forward a cheque for £6 5s. for the Orphanage. Last year two young gentlemen at Stowmarket presented us with a guinea, which they had realized by giving an entertainment on behalf of the orphans. they have recently called their friends together again, and, as the result, have sent us thirty shillings, with a neat little note, in which they say, “We hope to be able to do even more another year, as we like working for so good a cause.” We are, very grateful to all the kind Cornish and Suffolk folk who helped our young friends, and we shall be glad to hear of similar efforts in other parts of the country. It is a capital idea for children to be taught to sympathize with the poor and needy, and to assist them as far as they are able. this is the, way to train up a generation of philanthropists to take the place of those who are being called away from us one by one..

COLPORTAGE.—Special attention is called to the annual meeting of the Colportage Association, which is fixed for Monday, May 7th, in the Metropolitan tabernacle. the President will take the chair, if he is well enough to be out, and S. D. Waddy, Esq., Q.C., M.P., and the Rev. J. Reid Howatt, of Camberwell Presbyterian Church, have promised to address the meeting. Full reports of the work will be given, and several of the colporteurs will tell interesting incidents of their experience in book-selling, visiting, preaching, etc.

PERSONAL NOTE. — During the past month we have received a large number of letters concerning friends who have fallen asleep, to whom our sermons and other works have been made useful. It would not be possible to publish all of them, but we must find room for the following note:—

“My dear sir,—Allow me to forward you what I believe will be a word of encourage-merit.

“A dear niece of mine, who was consumptive, sweetly fell asleep in Jesus on Monday evening last, at the early age of twenty-five. Previous to her illness she was not a Christian. Since, her heart has been changed, and she has died a most triumphant death.

“During her illness your book, ‘Morning by Morning,’ has been a blessed comfort to her; it has been spiritual food to her soul She devoured it eagerly, and was delighted when some relative or friend read some appropriate portion to her. the text and comment for March 3rd, , I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction,’ were singularly appropriate and precious to her. She has manifested her appreciation of the book by presenting her father and mother and her husband’s father with a copy each. I pray that it may prove as great a blessing to them as it has to her.

“I may say that the fear of death was taken entirely from her, and she calmly waited its approach. Until the day of her death she would have the inimitable hymns, ‘ Jesus, lover of my soul,’ ‘ Rock of Ages,’ ‘Nearer, my God, to thee,’ ‘I heard the voice of Jesus say,’ etc., sung by her sisters, and even when her voice could not be heard louder than the faintest whisper, she would join with them, or reiterate, ‘Sing them again, sing them again.’ On the day of her death it seemed as if heaven’s glory had burst through the veil, her face lit up with the most heavenly smile, and with sparkling eyes, she said, Look. Jesus. Jesus. At five o’clock in the afternoon she said, ‘ I am almost there, I shall soon be with Jesus.’ At ten minutes past five she asked what time it was. When her sister told her, she said, ‘ 1 shall be in heave, by half-past six.’ Her father, mother, aunt, and three sisters were in the room when she said this. Several times after she asked the time: once she said, ‘Why does not the time go quicker?’ She had not much longer to wait, at ten minutes past six, or just one hour after she made the statement, in the presence of her friends, she calmly and sweetly fell asleep in Jesus. “I must apologize for forwarding this letter to you, but the victory has been so complete and marvelous, and achieved by one very unlikely to achieve such a glorious victory, and your precious book has been the chief instrument used by the Holy Spirit to accomplish it, that I thought it would not be out of place to acquaint you with the facts. With sincere prayers that you may be long spared to be a great blessing to others, “I remain, my dear Sir, “Yours very truly,

ANNUAL PAPER

CONCERNING

THE LORD’S WORK

IN CONNECTION WITH

THE PASTORS’ COLLEGE,

NEWINGTON, LONDON. 1882-.83.

COLLEGE BUSINESS OFFICERS.

PRESIDENT. C. H. SPURGEON, “WESTWOOD,” BEULAH HILL, UPPER NORWOOD, S.E.

VICE-PRESIDENT J. A. SPURGEON’, WHITE HORSE ROAD, CROYDON.

TRUSTEES IN WHOM THE PROPERTY IS VESTED.

Mr. WILLIAM OLNEY, 9, the Paragon, New Kent Road, S.E.

Mr. JOSEPH PASSMORE, 4, Paternoster Buildings, E.C.

Mr. W. C. MURRELL, the Lawn, South Lambeth, S.W.

Mr. T. H. OLNEY, I, Fountain Court, ALDERMANBURY, E.C.

MR. W. PAYNE, 350, Kennington Road, S.E.

Mr. B. W. CARR, 60, Josephine Avenue, Brixton Hill, S.W.

Mr. C. F. ALLISON, 7, Eccleston Square, S.W.

Mr. H. SMITH, 159, Clapham Road, S.W.

FINANCIAL COMMITTEE.

C. H. SPURGEON W.C. MURRELL.

J. A. SPURGEON J. PASSMORE.

SOLICITOR, AND SECRETARY FOR STUDENTS’ APPLICATIONS.

MR. T. C. PAGE, 92, Newington Butts, S.E.

SECRETARY.

MR. C. H. THOMAS, Metropolitan tabernacle.

The work of the College has for many years been adopted by the Church at tire tabernacle as its own. the accounts are examined with the accouters of the Church by auditors chosen by the Church, and are read and passed at the Annual Church Meeting in the beginning of the year.

FORM OF BEQUEST.

I Give and Bequeath the sum of _____ pounds sterling, to be paid out of that part of my personal estate which may by law be given will effect for charitable purposes, to be paid to the treasurer for the time being of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, Surrey, and his receipt shall be a sufficient discharge for the said legacy ; and this legacy, when received by such treasurer, to be applied for the general purposes of the College.

CONCERNING COLLEGE AS WE SEE IT.

BY C. H. SPURGEON.

YEARS ago, when I had newly commenced my ministry, I felt a burden from the Lord laid upon me; and this was the nature of it, — I was bound over not only to preach the gospel myself, but to see that others were helped to do the same. In Paul’s word to Timothy I found my own pastoral charge: “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (See 2 Timothy 2. 1, 2.)

How weighty a matter was thus laid upon me I did not perceive at the first, and peradventure I do not even yet fully estimate it, though much of it now lies open and clear in the words of the great apostle. It may be that the fullness of his meaning is not to be learned except by experience; certainly, by experience I have discovered that any enterprise taxes all my strength, and makes me cry for more. That I may obtain this extraordinary help, I desire the intercessions of all who have power with God. To win the prayerful sympathy of friends I will spend a little time in meditating upon the words of the apostle. My pert runs sermon fashion, and my heart is warm with my theme; forgive me, therefore, if I preach rather than write a report. I want to plead for myself, and for all who have to keep the charge of the Lord’s house; for we need the hearty good wishes and supplications of all our Master’s servants. I desire to put my readers in sympathy with one of our old hymns: —

“‘Tis not a cause of small import
The pastor’s care demands;
But what might fill an angel’s heart,
And fill’d a Savior’s hands.”

The exhortation of the apostle urges the man of God to be himself strong; for the task imposed upon him is one for which no weakling is fitted. “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus.” Some read it,” be inwardly strengthened ‘ be invested with power such as only grace can bestow. Never were Paul’s words more needful than at this hour. “Quit yourselves like men, be strong,” is the most fitting exhortation for this critical moment. Strength of grace’ is needed in these evil times to avow the truth, and to remain constant to it in one’s own personal ministry; but much more is required if we are to hand on the sacred deposit of revealed doctrine to others.

The simplicity and openness of the work are, in part, its trial. We are not allowed in this matter to use the craft which commends itself to minds of the Jesuitical order; for having received the doctrines of Christ, as Paul saith, “among many witnesses,” we know not the art of private communication, and utterly abjure the idea of secret directions delivered with closed doors. Our teaching might be written across the midday sky: we desire nothing better. We have nothing to keep secret for the initiated: for these things were not done in a corner, but were meant for the light of day, and for proclamation upon the housetops. The “many witnesses” are mentioned to show how open and aboveboard are the tactics of the servants of the Lord. We can only transmit to faithful men the open and simple truth of Christ Jesus, and the grace which is treasured up in him. For the doctrina arcani, or secret traditional doctrine of the Catholics, we care nothing, and for private rules of brotherhoods and societies we care less: the thing which has been delivered to us to be handed on is nothing new, nothing of our own inventing, nothing which we can improve upon, but only the apostolic teaching which the Holy Ghost has written in the open Bible, and engraved upon our own hearts by his gracious operations. This is the priceless treasure which we are to commit to faithful men, and in this matter we are to give ourselves no rest till the sacred committal is perfected. Our work is plain, and the truth to be handed on is clear; and this fact lifts our service above the dreary depths of human cunning into the sublime difficulties of a Christ-like service. It is by no means a severe task to invent a system, and invest it with mystery; but to keep to plain, well known truth, and nothing else, in the same: steady manner as our forefathers did, is a trial of steadfastness which some minds’ cannot endure.

Committing the plain gospel to faithful men is not so small a matter as it looks to be. Since upon most minds the temptation is forcible to display personal ability by teaching novel doctrines or freshly-devised practices, the minister of Christ had need be strong in the grace which Is in Christ Jesus that he may boldly adhere to the old faith, and to scriptural methods, which so many are apt to deride as antiquated and worn-out. The disease of seeking some new thing takes possession of minds which are not fortified by the grace of God; so that to adhere in all points to the things which are verily believed among us, and yet to proclaim them with freshness, requires daily renewal of strength from the invisible fountain of power. Babes are soon blown off their feet by winds of doctrine, and boys run into the meadows after every nest which silly birds may choose to build: this is the natural frivolity of unstable, because unestablished, minds. To be firm in the faith needs spiritual manhood, and to reach that manhood is not a thing of everyday occurrence: hence the need of the power of the Holy Ghost and of the prayers of all the saints that the minister of Christ may attain thereto. The virtue for this age is steadfastness. In none is it more required than in the man who is set for the defense of the gospel. In his measure each believer in Christ is thus set by his Lord; yet there is a still most emphatic sense in which this is true of the more prominent among the Lord’s servants, and they therefore require a larger endowment of power from on high. The wind rages, and all cables are strained: the current rushes madly towards error, and all steam is needed to force the vessel up stream. “Brethren, pray for us,” is the cry of every one of those who contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; and very piteously would some of us utter the entreaty, for we are of all men the most unhappy if we are deprived of the intercessions of our brethren.

Mischief is sure to be done if we fall into an error, which commonly waylays teachers at every turning while engaged in this weighty business: the Christian tutor is liable to be led astray by a desire to stand well with his men, and with others engaged in similar pursuits. It is not; the easiest thing in the world to sink the instructor in the instruction; and to be nothing, that the truth taught may be all in all. We would prefer to be reckoned great and enlightened rabbis if it might be so, and our work be at the same time passably performed: to be mere old-fashioned teachers of a time-worn faith is no tempting object for ordinary carnal ambition. Tutors naturally like to be had in honor among their fellows; and even modesty suggests that they should not follow singularity for its own sake: hence, let no man deceive himself with the notion that we pride ourselves upon being called old-fashioned, and behind the age. If it were all the same to our critics, we would as willingly be thought to have some little culture as to have none: yet, as their opinions will not materially alter the fact one way or another, we do not intend to go down on our knees to pray them to deal mercifully with us. At the present time there is an affectation of liberalism abroad, and the desire to be had in repute as a person of enlarged views is a common snare to men of reading and influence. It flatters young men to let them imagine that they are not being taught any fixed dogmas; and in return they flatter their teacher by ascribing to him a breadth of mind and a candor of judgment which in all probability he does not possess. He is teaching heresy and they are believing a lie, and they mutually encourage each other. The blind lead the blind, and we know the consequences. Unless grace is given to make a man strong in the Lord, educated believers are in these days frequently tempted to aspire after the position of “leaders of thought,” “men who are abreast of the times,” and “persons of thoughtful minds.” Old-fashioned believers are at a discount, and are sneered at as a kind of idiots: this is not a pleasant experience for those who know that they are the. equals, if not the superiors, of their despisers. If we are strong in the Lord, we shall cast off all tendency to give place by subjection to the theories of the hour, even as a vigorous constitution resists the malaria by which it is surrounded: but in all cases where men bear large responsibilities it is most desirable that daily prayer should be offered that they may be upheld by grace, so that the standard-bearers do not fall. .

Another influence may, however, entangle the feet of the teacher of those who are soon to be teachers of others. He will meet with many discouragements because the work of the Lord does not appear to prosper in his hand; and by these discouragements he may be urged to vain devices. Those whom he helps to become teachers may prove inefficient in the ordinary manner of ministry, and even among the more successful, progress may not attain to express speed; and herein lies the trial of hi.,; faith in God and in the gospel. Weak minds are apt to rush upon plans and methods which promise to effect speedily what otherwise may be long in coming. Fascinating schemes, unauthorized by the Word of God, are gendered by the fermentation of heated brains; and all manner of noisy vanities go forth into the world in the name of him whose kingdom cometh not with observation. For the same reason truth is altered and twisted, so that by being accommodated to the carnal mind it may make more rapid progress; and the idol of compromise is set up, before which burns an altar consecrated both to God and to Belial. Everywhere the noxious endeavor to do something more than rehearse the teaching of revelation and obey the rules of King Jesus is working evil. Fever is mistaken for life, and noise is substituted for inward piety. Enterprises are attempted and carried out in ways which were never suggested by the Scriptures, nor by the Holy Spirit; and God is asked to bless modes of spreading the gospel which he never authorized. The air around us at this time appears to be charged with the mephitic vapor of will-worship. We are traversing that part of the pilgrim road which was known to the great allegorist as The Enchanted Ground: grace alone can now keep us pressing forward in the right way, and that grace had need be of a forceful character. Oh, that the Holy Spirit may be specially given to all the masters in our schools of the prophets, lest they commit to their students a deposit of mire and dirt from the troubled sea of human thought, or hand to them the mushroom spawn of fanaticism, instead of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.

As for myself and my associates, we believe the doctrines of the gospel to have been settled when the Spirit first inspired the Bible; the mode of its being spread to have been ordained when our Savior gave forth his commission; and the ordering of the church to have been determined by our Lord and his apostles; and therefore we feel bound to keep within given rules and fixed regulations. Whether such work as we judge to be prescribed us prospers or fails according to human judgment is no matter of weight with us; we have taken our resolve to abide by the old faith, and to leave the consequences with our Lord. We can do no other. God help us!

The evil tendencies which I have just mentioned are but two among many which beset those who are put in trust with the gospel; but if I were so to enlarge as to mention all the perils which beset them, I should but have named one out of a thousand reasons why they should be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. It is assuredly true that a sevenfold measure of divine strength, is required in a man who, in addition to his own testimony to the truth, endeavors to instruct others in the art of witness bearing; for if he be not strong himself, his spiritual children are not likely to be vigorous; and what is to be done with weaklings in the ministry? We have enough dwarfs already, without knowingly increasing the number; and yet, if the fathers be dwarfs, what are their sons likely to be? Herein is a solemn consideration, calling for supernatural help. Whatsoever diseases may weaken the teacher will probably be developed with greater force in those who are taught; and it will be a dreadful evil if, in committing the truth to men, we also transmit our own infirmities and deformities. Tutors should be what they wish their students to be; and what manner of men should ministers be? They should thunder in preaching, and lighten in conversation; they should be flaming in prayer, shining in life, and burning in spirit. If they be not so, what can they effect? If they be not spiritual Samsons how can the roaring lion be overcome? How can the gates of hell be lifted from their hinges? How can the house of evil be pulled down upon those who gather in it? Who is sufficient for these things? Truly, our sufficiency is of God; but how much we need that all who prize the truth of God should lift up their hearts and voices to heaven on. our behalf! Provided that we know the truth and are confirmed in it by divine grace, it is yet no trifling work to pass on the heavenly treasure to those who are to become its guardians in the future. David had the ark of God in his land, but the Lord was not pleased with the manner of his moving it to its resting-place, and therefore he made a breach upon him. The like may happen to us in handing over the truth of God to others: it is a delicate and difficult service. A man must first know the truth in his own soul before he can effectually transmit it to those who sit at his feet: how shall he teach what he does not know? Knowing it, he must live in the daily enjoyment of it, or else his knowledge will become stagnant, and instruction will not flow from him in a clear, limpid stream, filling those who wait to receive it. Only as the Holy Ghost overshadows a man’s mind can he influence other minds in a right manner. The spirit of the gospel must be in him as well as its doctrine, or he will bear the truth to his pupils with such rough, unsteady, or uncomely hands that they will not care to accept it from him, their minds being far more distracted by the ill humor of their tutor than attracted by the preciousness of what he teaches. The best of food may be rendered unpalatable through the slovenliness of the cook: yea, an absolute abhorrence of dainty meat may be wrought by an uncleanly finger. We fear that certain highly orthodox teachers have been unconscious suggesters and promoters of heresy in the minds of those who have found their manner of stating the truth to be altogether intolerable. Right daintily and tenderly should the virgin of truth be escorted by those who have the honor to be her champions. The crystal vase of sound doctrine must not be rudely dashed at the feet of the learner, lest he wound his hands in gathering up the fragments of that which ought to have been presented to him as a thing of beauty and a joy for ever.

Even if the teacher were perfectly skilled in the art of transmitting the truth to others, another no less serious difficulty would remain in his way. He is charged to commit the gospel to men possessed of a twofold suitableness: they are to be “faithful men,” and they are to be “able to teach others also.” Where shall we find such men? Herein lies a demand for great care, discrimination, and judiciousness in the selection of men from the numbers who apply. Where, at the outset, shall we find faithful men? Men of faith are none too common; but men full of faith are rare as diamonds. To be faithful in the sense intended by the apostle is something more even than being full of faith; it means to be trustworthy persons, fit to be relied upon. These men who are to teach others must be faithful to Christ, as he is the.. Way, the Truth, and the Life; faithful, so that their conduct shows the road to heaven; faithful, so that their doctrine is the pure truth of God; faithful, so that their inner life quickens all that they do. We are to search out for men whose hearts are godly, whose minds have sincerely received the truth, and whose tongues are prepared honestly to preach it. It is at our peril that we lay hands suddenly on any man: there must be full examination and prayerful judgment. The pearl of great price is not to be trusted to every thief who clamors for its possession. The wise man saith, “One sinner destroyeth much good,” and this is especially true if he be admitted to minister in God’s sanctuary. The Egyptians chose their priests from their philosophers, and when they needed kings they chose them from their priests: ministers of God should be choice men who would be fitted to undertake the highest offices in the realm. Men who have a deep experience of the things of God, and a grip of truth which they cannot relax, are likely to remain faithful to it, and are to be preferred. Faithfulness is better than scholarship. The two combined are best; but we can give the second, the first must come from God alone: therefore, to begin with, we must mainly keep our eye on the spiritual jewel of faithfulness. Alas, we are frequently deceived, and even the letters of pastors and the judgments of churches cannot save us from this calamity. Men who have been useful for years have been known to drop into an evil state of mind when the prospect of the ministry has exalted them; others are good as students; but in after-life, from ill acquaintance, or from the pride of intellect, they fall into erroneous opinions. Too many lose the fire with which they burned at the first, and cool down into mere professional repeaters of orthodoxy. How have I been ready to ,weep my heart away when I have seen one man carried away with vainglory, another overthrown by heresy, a third enticed by riches, a fourth silenced by inconsistency, a fifth beguiled by novelty, a sixth ruined by unaccountable folly. Those who were supposed to be “faithful men” turn out to be faithless men, and the treasure committed to them is discarded for some form or other of the world’s dross. Ah, the heartbreak of seeing hopeful usefulness wrecked upon the rocks at the moment when it seemed most likely to make a prosperous voyage! The choicer the fruit, and the more care taken in raising it, the greater the grief which sees the worm devour it. The sorrow of the Master himself in beholding Judas develop into a devil is repeated to us in our measure when we see the instructed disciple perverted into the betrayer of his Lord. Yet this desolating grief is not unknown to us. What do we do in this case? Wounded, do we leave the field? Do we yield to the stunning force of a traitor’s blow, and leave our life-work? Far from it: it remains that again we seek out faithful men, and learn from our misfortune how to choose more prayerfully and teach more thoroughly.

Further than this, death is also a great adversary, at least in appearance; for the godly man is taken home when there seemed urgent need for him on earth. When the earnest young brother is as yet like a fair blossom, there comes a frost, a killing frost. Or later on,. when he is experienced in holy warfare, and is becoming a veteran in the armies of the Lord, he is taken up from among us, and though he himself receives his full reward, our work is yet to do, for the dead cannot keep the treasure of the living God. Our graveyard is gradually enriched with dear remains, and our harvest-field pines for more laborious binders of the sheaves. More men must be “baptized for the dead,” recruits must be accepted to fill up the ranks; and so our work repeats itself because this immortal conflict is fought out by mortal men. Assuredly leaders in this enterprise need consolations of no ordinary kind. Must it not be so where both the death-roll and the black list of failures furnish food for sorrow? Will not the Lord’s people stand by all of us who war this warfare, and sustain us in all ways that lie in their power? If they do not, we are indeed as men set to lead a forlorn hope, deserted of their comrades. No, we recall the language; we are not forlorn, for we shall not even then be forsaken of our God.

We may not forget the second qualification which the apostle incidentally mentions. It is not enough that the men be faithful; they must be “able to teach”: ability must not be divided from suitability. Trustworthiness is their moral and spiritual qualification; but the teachers of others need a mental qualification also: they must be apt to teach, or they will be of no value. This qualification includes both the ability to instruct others and the readiness to do so: the faculty, and the call to exercise it, must meet. It is not without serious thought and devout supplication that a man will be able to discover whether the teaching faculty exists in those who desire to take upon themselves the office which requires it. It is impossible to tell by looking in a man’s face, or by searching into his moral character, or by reading papers and essays which he has prepared, or even by hearing him preach once or twice, whether he is a born teacher.

It might not be easy to say why some can teach and others cannot; but, assuredly, both children and grown-up people refuse to learn from certain individuals, and when these persons labor their very hardest, their failure is all the more painfully evident. The truth is in them, but they cannot either get it out of themselves or get it into others. In all probability the persons to be taught could give no reason for their aversion; but the aversion is plain enough: the brother has no winsome ways, he has something forbidding in his countenance, or his tones, or his general style: one could hardly light on the exact point of disqualification; but the fact is clear, the man cannot teach, for nobody wilt learn of him. Matters of temper, heart, and spirit, and even of mannerism, in some secret manner impress common folk for or against a person who aims to be their teacher; and it is of no use arguing against that impression, for it will not be removed by argument. A man is certainly not “able to teach others” if others steadfastly refuse to be taught by him. Hence there is a secret something which we must look for, and if we see it not, it is vain to hope to produce it.

A teaching man must think in a clear and practical manner; he must arrange his thoughts in an orderly and forcible fashion; and then he must clothe them in appropriate language, or he will say a great many good things, but he will teach nothing. The best instruction, if it be confused, disordered, hazy, will end in smoke. An able teacher must adapt himself to his audience so as to catch their attention, and retain it; otherwise he may deliver a wonderful discourse, and the pity may be that another congregation did not hear it, since it was suitable to none who were in the actual audience. A man must not only be able to teach in the abstract, but able to teach those particular persons with whom his lot will be cast in after-life. A young man may have been exceedingly successful in the Sabbath-school, and in village preaching, but yet he may never be a fit person for any wider sphere. He is able to teach those about him, but the range of his ability goes no further. Care is needed in those instances which appear to be plainest.

A teacher, of course, needs knowledge in the first place, and the more of it the better. He requires a sound memory, that he may bring forth out of his treasury things new and old; and then he needs a door of utterance, that he may be able to set forth his precious things with skill, and commend them to those round about him. But if the preacher should possess all these, there is still a nameless endowment, a mystic anointing, a sacred unction from the Holy One by which the man is qualified as he never could otherwise have been by all the teaching which his fellow Christians may bring to bear upon him. I remember a story connected with the great Council of Nice, which was told to our students by Mr. Paxton Hood, when he was delivering a course of lectures among us. I think I must quote it, for it explains my meaning. It is the story of Spiridion, “a rude shepherd,” but a robust believer. “It is said that the disputes were running high, and the philosophers sounding on their perilous way, when before one of the chief disputants there limped the shepherd Spiridion. He had but one eye, and he had a limping leg; he had lost an eye, and had been maimed through suffering For the faith, and now abruptly he broke in and said, ‘Christ and his apostles left us not a system of logic, nor a vain deceit, but a naked truth, to be guarded by faith and good works.’ Turning full upon the disputants, especially one Eulogius, nick-named Fair-speech, he said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, hear me, philosophers; — there is one God, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, who made all things by the word of his power, and by the holiness of his Holy Spirit; — this Word, by which name we call the Son of God, took compassion on men, for their wandering astray, and for their savage condition, and chose to be born of a woman, and to converse with men, and to die for them, and he shall come to judge every one for the things done in life. These things we believe without curious inquiry: cease, then, from the vain labors of seeking proof against what is established by faith, and the manner in which these things may be, or may not be; but if thou believest, answer at once the questions as I put them to you.’ The philosopher was struck dumb by this new mode of argument. He could only reply, in a general way, that he assented. ‘Then,’ answered the old man, ‘ if thou believest, rise, and follow me to the Lord’s house, and receive the sign of this faith.’ The philosopher was staggered; he turned to the crowd of his disciples, and he said, ‘Hear me, my learned friends. So long as it was a matter of words to words, whatever was opposed I overthrew by my skill in speaking; but when, in the place of words, power came out of the speaker’s lips, words could no longer resist power — man could no longer resist God. If any of you feel as! have felt, let him believe in Christ, and follow this old man in whom God has spoken.’ I think this story illustrates what we desire the power of the preacher to be — the magnetic power of earnestness, and its simplicity, over argument and speculation.” This power is the grand mark of the man sent of God. Enthusiasm based on conviction, and quickened by the Holy Ghost, is the essential endowment. Where we believe we see this precious thing we are prompt to impart all that we have received of the Divine word; but in that belief we may greatly err, and so lay hands on one who cannot teach, and will not learn, in the gospel sense of those terms. Each mistake in this business is gall and wormwood to us, and yet Solomon himself might have fallen into the error many a time; for the imitations of the heavenly gift are numerous and cleverly devised.

Success in our high vocation, when it does come, repays for all. With an intense delight I look upon hundreds of brethren who have hitherto made full proof of their ministry. There they are! Firm as rocks for the eternal verities, earnest as apostles for the winning of souls, fruitful as gardens of the Lord in all hallowed service! You, my brethren, who have from year to year supplied me with funds, are partners in my joy; I would there were more of you! Many hundreds of friends help me to support orphans, but only a few, comparatively, aid me in the training of ministers. These are both good works; but I know which I conceive to be the more fruitful in results, the more useful to the church, and the more glorifying to the Lord Jesus. Common humanity cares for the orphan, but thoughtful piety alone will consider the student. I care not to set one of nay life-works over against another; but I venture to say with special earnestness, Do not FORGET THE COLLEGE. Aid me still to equip for holy labor those faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. If you can do nothing else for me, enrich me with your prayers. The Lord deal graciously with you even as you deal with me in this effort, which holds a chief place in my heart of hearts.

COLLEGE NOTES

WORK DONE BY MEN FROM OUR RANKS.

THE following facts are points of interest which crop up in the – year’s work of our College brotherhood. We attempt no complete report; it would not be possible this year, perhaps not at any time. To God be praise for substantial progress.

CHISWICK. — From the year 1867 to 1877 the little old Nonconformist chapel in this place was a preaching-station connected with our College. Towards the latter part of that period a church was formed, which might have been classed with the “Zoars” of our denomination; for it was indeed “a little one,” when the present pastor, Mr. W. E. Lynn, went to minister there. The divine blessing has followed our brother’s labors, and his church now numbers nearly eighty members. The lease of the old chapel expired in March, 188i, and the friends were obliged to find another home. Early last year they secured a very good site, and have erected the commodious iron chapel in which they now worship.

POPLAR AND BROMLEY TABERNACLE, BRUNSWICK-ROAD. — About ten years ago Mr. W. T. Lambourne became pastor of the church meeting in George-street, Bromley-by-Bow, which had become reduced to a very low state for want of pastoral oversight. Great blessing was vouchsafed to our brother’s labors, and in the course of three years the friends were greatly incommoded and the work hindered for want of room. Passing over many interesting details, we have only space to say that, as a temporary expedient, a very large tent was erected upon a suitable site, and services held therein for a considerable time till a large schoolroom could be erected. This accomplished, our earnest brother and his hardworking people set about building the chapel proper, a handsome structure, with sittings for rather more than eleven hundred persons. It was opened in September last. The membership is about two hundred.

WOOLWICH. — Mr. Spurgeon last year purchased at public auction a small chapel in Joseph Street, in which one of the students is preaching with much acceptance.

HORNCHURCH (Essex). — A Christian friend, Mr. Abraham, sought the help of Mr. Spurgeon in providing gospel privileges for this locality, and Mr. E. Dyer, of the College, was sent to Preach the word about two years ago. He has succeeded in gathering a congregation, and has seen some fruit from his labors. On July 18, last year, Mr. Spurgeon preached in the open air, and aided at the laying of the foundation-stone of a chapel, to which he has contributed £100. The chapel was opened in September by our beloved brother, Archibald Brown. £300 more will be needed to free the place from debt.

HAWICK, N.B. — The Baptist church in this town invited our student, Mr. W. Seaman, to become its pastor in February, 1880. The chapel being small and inconvenient, the principal services have been conducted in the Temperance Hall, pending the erection of a suitable building. This has now been effected at a cost £1,350, and the new chapel was opened for worship on February 18, by Rev. W. Tulloch, President of the Baptist Union of Scotland.

GLASGOW. — The church, under the pastoral care of Pastor W. H. Elliott, which used to worship at the Standard Hall, Main-street, Gorbals, removed this time last year to a neat and substantial brick structure at the corner of Kirk and Buchan Streets. The chapel seats four hundred and fifty persons. Our brother has been with his people seven years. There is a fellowship of one hundred and seventy-nine members, an increase of thirty-one over last year’s return. This work deserves liberal aid.

SANDOWN (Isle of Wight). — On February 9, 1882, Pastor J. A. Spurgeon conducted service in the Old Town Hall, where Mr. A. Bird had gathered a congregation. Twenty believers were formed into a church on that occasion; since then the membership has been doubled. A chapel, which will seat 320 persons, has been erected in Pell Street, at a cost of about £1,000. Pastor J. A. Spurgeon preached the first sermon in the new chapel on July 20. £112 were contributed during the day, including £50 from the President. The prospects of this new cause are bright, but at present it needs help from us.

LEICESTER (Carley Street). — A new chapel has been erected on the site of the old one which had been for some time too strait for the congregation; it was, moreover, in a very dilapidated condition. The Leicester General Baptists, having obtained possession of the building about eight years ago, invited Pastor Jacob Forth, then of Wirksworth, to begin Christian work therein, and soon a church of twenty members was formed: there are now more than a hundred in church-fellowship.

ST. LEONARDS-ON-SEA. — About three years since a few friends, resident in the locality, hired the Warrior Square Concert Rooms, and Pastor W. W. Haines, of Eye, was invited to preach, with the view of establishing a Baptist church. The church, formed in 1881, now consists of eighty-five members. A substantial chapel, with school and class-rooms, has been erected in Chapel-park Road, at a cost, including freehold land of about £4,500, towards which we have contributed as much as we could spare, but would like to give a great deal more. The town needed this chapel, and we doubt not that a large and influential congregation will be gathered.

NEW BUSTER AND SOUTH WATFORD. — From 1869, when Mr. Spurgeon purchased the iron chapel in Bushey New Town, until last October, the Baptist church has made steady progress and worked hard to secure a place of worship suited to the needs of the growing neighborhood. They have happily succeeded, and now meet in their handsome chapel at Chalk hill, which, with school-rooms, has cost £3,250. This site was generously given by Mr. Bailey. We believe that there only remains a debt of six or seven hundred pounds. There are one hundred and ten members in fellowship, and good congregations.

ST. ALBAN’S TABERNACLE. — We know nothing as to the reasons for forming a second Baptist church in St. Alban’s; but as this congregation has chosen our friend H. W. Taylor for their pastor, we are bound to record the building of a commodious chapel and the gathering of a growing people. In loving harmony with all other existing churches may this church go from strength to strength.

WEST HAM LANE. — We know very little of the history of the chapel here known as “The Tabernacle,” but believe it was erected by a zealous Christian man, who hoped to make the building a center of usefulness, but failed to gather a sufficient number of helpers to sustain the work. The building would have been closed had not our former student, Mr. J. W. Wilkinson, offered to conduct services in it, and met with sufficient encouragement to induce him to hire it at a rather heavy rental. A Baptist church of seventy members has been formed, and Mr. Wilkinson will, we have good reason to believe, make the undertaking a success. He is well known to many of our friends as a former successful pastor of Ventnor Baptist church.

CHRISTCHURCH (New Zealand). — During the five-and-a-half years’ pastorate of our brother Charles Dallaston the church has been greatly cheered and encouraged by signs of Divine blessing in their midst; four hundred and twenty-seven believers having been received into fellowship during that time. The crowded congregations rendered increased accommodation necessary, and the friends were compelled to build. They have recently opened their present commodious chapel (or “church” as Colonials call a meeting-house), seated for eight hundred, and with provision for galleries when further accommodation shall be required. The cost was about F3,200.

GIPSY ROAD (Lower Norwood). — The large and handsome chapel erected for the church under the pastoral care of Mr. Hobbs was opened in May last, and almost from the commencement has been well filled. Best of all, souls are continually being saved. During the past year over one hundred have been added to the church. The Sunday-school, Bible-classes, Temperance and Band of Hope work, and other agencies are in active operation, and there is scarcely an evening in the week when the chapel or lecture-hall is not in use. The premises cost altogether £4,600, of which a debt of £2,000 still remains. It is hoped that, with the help of the London Baptist Association Chapel Debts’ Fund, at least one-fourth of this amount will be removed during the present year.

PROJECTS WHICH OUGHT TO BE CARRIED OUT

as speedily as possible, being sterling enterprises worthy to be attended to with all dispatch. Many beside these are most desirable; but we dare not mention more at this present lest in the crowd they should all be forgotten.

TUNBRIDGE WELLS (Calverly Row). — The church and congregation worshipping in the Town-hall have been gathered by brethren from our College during the past nine years. Mr. James Smith (formerly of Leeds) is now the minister, and here, as in previous spheres, the Lord has owned and blessed his earnest preaching. It has become imperative upon the people to build a house for the Lord, and they have purchased an eligible site for £1,900, and are preparing to erect a chapel to seat six hundred and thirty persons, together with a lecture-room for school purposes, at a total cost, inclusive of the ground, of £5,500. The church members are mostly of the working-classes, and will need liberal and prompt aid. Our esteemed friend, Mr. Samuel Barrow, is their Treasurer.

BAYSWATER (Talbot Tabernacle). — Our beloved brother, Mr. Frank White, and his devoted people, are in need of the help of the Lord’s stewards that they may at once replace the worn-out iron structure in which they now worship by a commodious and substantial building suitable for their many good works. They must build, or else surrender the ground upon which their present chapel stands, the only available spot in the neighborhood; they have no alternative but that of abandoning the work. Our dear friend has now been laboring in London for twenty years, helping every good work within his power; his praise is in all the churches, and we commend his work and its present needs to the generous help of the Lord’s servants.

CAMBERWELL NEW ROAD (Masonic Hall and Wyndham Road Chapel). — The friends here have been toiling on, and have paid for their freehold ground; but the task of building a suitable place of worship will be too much for them unless the Lord should incline some of his stewards to come to their rescue. Mr. Hockey and his friends deserve all the good things which we could possibly say of them.

PUTNEY (Werter Road). — There is an earnest working church here of members meeting in a school-chapel much too small for their needs; indeed, like several other places of the kind, this was but a temporary expedient. The work is one of the results of our Tabernacle Country Mission. Plans have been drawn for the new chapel to be erected in front of the present building (which will then serve admirably for school purposes); the estimated cost is £3,800. C.H. Spurgeon is the Treasurer, and we may say that, up to the present, his many burdens have not been made the heavier by the office; for very little has been received by him. Putney Baptist Chapel ought to be one of the earliest completed.

PONDER’S END. — A church and a fair congregation have been gathered by Mr. A. F. Cotton, one of our students, who has been working here under considerable disadvantages for want of suitable accommodation. The Sabbath-school numbers two hundred and fifty children and twenty teachers. It is interesting to see a wood engraving of Ponder’s End Chapel and Schools in the Baptist Handbook of 1882. May they soon exist.

BATTERSEA PARK CHAPEL. — Again and again have we had to record the progress of the Lord’s work here under the three successive and successful pastors, W. J. Mayers, A. Bax, and T. Lardner, and almost from the first, thirteen years ago, we have seen the need of a larger building upon the vacant ground in front. The school-chapel is now shut out of sight by blocks of buildings; and even worse, church and school work are hindered for want of room. We need a large sum. Our plea of” urgency” in other cases applies here.

LAMMAS HALL, BATTERSEA. — Here also is a church full of life and energy; but we fear it will be a long struggle before it has a house to call its own. Mr. Stone ought to be helped liberally and speedily.

ORPINGTON. — For more than thirty years the only Nonconformist meeting-house has been a converted cottage, which until lately has been large enough for the few converted cottagers who met to hear the Sunday supplies. Latterly, however, under the earnest preaching of Mr. White (whom we took into the College) quite a change has come over the “Baptist cause.” A good site has been presented for a new chapel, ,and our good friend Mr. W. Vinson and our brother and Deacon Mr. Allison have given and collected about three hundred pounds, which we, “treasure” as a nest egg.

TOOTING. — Mr. Witney’s people worshipping in their school-room much need a chapel. The ground is their property.

NEW BROMPTON. — In this suburb of Chatham, Mr. Blocksidge has bought ground and erected a room to hold 250 persons. This is so ,full that they must build a chapel as soon as they can.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND. — Last, but not least, aid is greatly needed for Thomas Spurgeon, whose work is hindered for want of a suitable Tabernacle.

LETTERS.

The following letters are full of interest to those who are in full sympathy with the work: —

WEST INDIES. — Mr. R. E. Gammon is employed by the Baptist Missionary Society in the Bahamas. He has one native preacher (J. H. Pusey, from Calabar College), and thirteen schoolmasters and other Christian workers under his direction at the fourteen, stations and substations. He has just sent us the following letter with statistics of the several stations. Fifty-seven converts have been baptized during the year, and the several churches under our brother’s care have an aggregate membership of seven hundred and sixty-eight.

“Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, January 15, 1883. “

My dear President, — Enclosed is the schedule of statistics of work done during the year just closed; we have been far from realizing many of our hopes;; still, our Master has not left us without tokens of his presence and blessing.

“On Christmas-Eve eleven candidates, in the presence of a crowded congregation, including a large number of Roman Catholic natives, publicly professed their disciple-ship to Christ by baptism, in Puerto Plata, and our increase in this church for the year is thirteen. In a Roman Catholic country like this, we have to be glad of small additions, as a proof of the spread of the truth as it is in Jesus. There were to have been twelve candidates, but the husband of the last (so I am told) followed her with a revolver, threatening to shoot her, and would not allow her to be baptized — perhaps, later on, he may repent of his folly, and permit her to obey her Lord’s command.

“On New Year’s Day the Padre (priest), ex-President of this republic, in consecrating 8, new image of San Felipe (the patron saint of Puerto Plata) gave a long address to a large audience, and amongst other things said: — ‘they (the Romanists) were vilified by non-Romanists as image worshippers — that it was untrue, they merely had them as visible representations of the good and saintly of past days, to bring their lives more vividly before the untutored and ignorant minds’; but I fear the ignorant ones are just those who do not distinguish the difference between admiring the virtues of the saintly ancients and worshipping them; and were some iconoclast to enter their church and smash one of their saints, no doubt he would fare badly if the people caught him. Some few weeks ago an ‘Alcade’ (a kind of magistrate here) who has been attending our services for some time, was suddenly stricken with blindness, and some of the people immediately said, it was a judgment on him because he had left off praying to the saints. Although we do not make rapid progress, we are hopeful because the Romanists manifest a kindly spirit towards us.

“The total number baptized in the district (i e., Santo Domingo and Turks and Caicos Islands,) is fifty-seven, and the net increase for the year is twenty-three in Turks Islands, many of the old members having died during the year.

“Hoping to present a better report before long, I remain, wishing prosperity to yourself, your work, and the College,

“My dear President, affectionately yours,
“R. E. GAMMON.”

The following letter intended for last Conference, arrived about a week too late; but we insert it here that all our brethren may see it, and remember in prayer their comrades who are battling bravely against the idolatry and superstition of India: —

“EAST INDIES, MARCH 20, 1882.

“Beloved President, Vice-President, Tutors, and Brethren, — From this distant part of:’ our Master’s vineyard we send our united love and greeting, praying also that your gatherings in Conference may be seasons of ‘ refreshing from the presence of the Lord.’ Scattered over this vast continent of India, and engaged in work as varied as the: languages we have to employ, we still feel united to each other, and to you, by the blessed associations and memories of our beloved College. Three of us have to labor in English, one in Telugu, one in Hindee and Hindustani, and one in Bengalee and Mussulmani-Bengalee; and yet we have but ‘ one Lord, one faith, and one baptism’ to declare to these different races. Our spheres of labor are very far apart. One of us is in Madras, one in Agra, two in Calcutta, one in Bachergunge, and one in Darjeeling. In each of these places idolaters, or followers of the false prophet, abound. ‘ At Athens, Paul’s spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry; ‘ and we often feel the same; yet we desire to be stirred up to far greater devotion in our work and zeal for our Master. Everything here tends to deaden and depress, unless we are constantly conscious of our Savior’s presence and help. Could we meet with you in Conference, we feel it would be the means of arousing and quickening us; but it will help to cheer us greatly to know that these few words will reach you, and that we have your sympathy and love.

“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may run, and be glorified (in India) even as also it is with you: and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and evil men, for all have not faith. But the Lord is faithful. In Him is our trust, for ‘ He must reign,’ and every form of idolatry and error must ultimately perish.

“With intense love to you all, and especially to our revered President, we remain, faithfully yours in Christ,

“ROBERT SPURGEON, Barisaul.
“WILLIAM NORRIS, Calcutta.
“G. H. HOOK, Lall Bazar, Calcutta.
“R. W. MAPLESDEN, Ongole, Madras Presidency.
“JAMES G. POTTER, Agra, N.W.P.
“H. RYLANDS BROWN, Darjeeling, Himalayas.”
“West Melbourne, Victoria, 15th Nov., 1882.

“THE STUDENTS OF THE PASTORS’ COLLEGE, NOW SETTLED IN VICTORIA,
TO THEIR BELOVED PRESIDENT,
C. H. SPURGEON.

“Dear Sir, — You received a letter from us two years ago so kindly that we gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity, when we are gathered at the Annual Session of the Victorian Baptist Association, to send another. Two of the brethren who signed the last letter have gone within the veil. Horatio H. Garrett, so beloved and useful, was called home with dread suddenness by a railway accident; and Henry Marsden received the summons to go up higher, after long weakness through wasting disease; yet he was enabled to preach to the last, and singularly glorified Christ by a holy, loving life and ministry.

“We feel sure that our President, with the Tutors and friends of the College, will be pleased to learn that, by the suffrages of the denomination, Brother William Clark, of Ballarat, has been called to the chairmanship of the association; Brother F. G. Buckingham, of Emerald Hill, Melbourne, preached the association sermon this year with marked power and general appreciation; whilst Brother A. J. Clarke, of West Melbourne, is the chairman elect for next year. Several years ago Brother W. C. Bunning, of Geelong, was similarly honored.

“Whilst we mourn that we have not to record greater and grander successes achieved for our Divine Master, we yet feel there is great cause for adoring gratitude that sustaining grace and much blessing have been given. Many souls have been won for Jesus, the churches have been built up in the faith, and church-building debts wholly or partially liquidated this year.

“Suffer us to repeat our assurances to you, beloved President, of our desire to be faithful to the truth we learned from you and our Tutors; to be instruments our Lord cart use because he finds us lowly and purified; and that distance may never weaken our affection for you and yours, or for the Institution which God has so honored at home and abroad.

“Through you, dear sir, we greet the goodly fellowship of our brothers in the ministry, and those who are now studying in College. May we all live so near to hint who is the life and light as to draw from him power to do and suffer faithfully even unto the end.” In token of loving salutation to you, and of holy pledge of fealty to our Redeemer-King, we sign our names.

“Farewell. May all grace be yours, for soul and body, through the Son of God. Amen.

“WM. CHRISTR. BUNNING, Geelong.
“WILLIAM CLARK, Ballarat.
“ALFRED J. CLARKE, West Melbourne.
“F. G. BUCKINGHAM, Emerald Hill.
“FREDERICK PAGE, South Yarra.
“JAMES BLAIKIE, Kew.
“ALEX. J. HAMILTON, Eaglehawk.
“JOHN DOWNING, Melbourne.
“HARRY WOOD, Melbourne.”

GENERAL RESULTS

DURING the twenty-seven years of our existence as a school of the prophets, six hundred and fifty-two men, exclusive of those at present studying with us, have been received into the College, “of whom the greater part remain unto this day; but some (forty-four) have fallen asleep.” Making all deductions, there are now in the work of the Lord, in some department or other of useful service, about five hundred and forty brethren. Of these four hundred and eighty-six are in our own denomination as Pastors, Missionaries, and Evangelists. They may be thus summarized: —

Number of brethren who have been educated in the College                   652

now in our ranks as Pastors, Missionaries, and Evangelists..                    486

without Pastorates, but regularly engaged in the work of the Lord           29

not now engaged in the work (in secular callings)                                     19

Medical Missionary Students                                                                    3

Educated for other Denominations                                                           2

Dead — (Pastors, 38; Students, 6)                                                             44

Permanently Invalided                                                                              5

Names removed from the List for various reasons, such as joining other Denominations, etc.     64

These last are not removed from our list in all cases from causes which imply any dishonor, for many of them are doing good service to the common Lord under some other banner. We are sorry for their leaving us, and astounded that they should change their views upon Baptism; but this also is one of those mysteries of human life which are beyond our control.

PASTORS’ COLLEGE SOCIETY OF EVANGELISTS.

SINCE the last Annual Report our Brethren SMITH and FULLERTON have completed their twelve months’ mission in London by conducting services at Mr. Charrington’s large Assembly Hall, Mile End Road; Dr. Barnardo’s Edinboro’ Castle; Trinity Chapel, John Street, Edgware Road; Salters’ Hall Chapel, Islington; and Woolwich. After their summer vacation they recommenced work in the provinces, and they have since visited Bath, Gloucester, Ross, Hereford, Hitchin, Benson, Liverpool, and Hull. The monthly notes in The Sword and the Trowel testify to the continued usefulness of this form of Christian service. Wherever our brethren go they win the hearty approval of ministers and churches of all denominations. They do not in any case labor apart from existing organizations, or in opposition to them, but as a rule their services are secured by committees representing most of the evangelical Christians in the city or town they are about to visit, and the converts at their meetings are counseled to unite themselves with the churches where they will be likely to derive most spiritual benefit. I1: is quite impossible to tell how many souls have been won for Christ through the preaching and singing of our brethren; but in every place where they have gone large numbers have professed to find the Savior, and many believers have been stimulated to fuller consecration and more earnest labor for the Lord.

Mr. BURNHAM’S work among the smaller churches is, in its measure, equally blessed. Our brother has both to preach and sing, as the places visited by him could not usually pay the expenses of two evangelists; and he generally manages to find his way into the houses of the people in the town or village where he is staying. It is a great joy to us to hear, in almost every instance, of the conversion of one or more of the inmates of the home where Mr. Burnham is entertained; and the appreciation of his services is shown by the fact that he is constantly being invited for the third or fourth time to conduct meetings in the same place. During the past year he has had engagements at Burnham (Essex), Trowbridge, Charlton Kings, Aldershot, Sandy, Watton, Luton, Collingham, Knighton, Weston-super Mare, Peterchurch, Fairford, Burnham (Somerset), East Finchley, Thorpele-Soken, Highgate, Leeds, Long Buckby, Melbourn, Great Torrington, and Lyme Regis, in addition to spending a month, as usual, among the hoppickers in Kent.

Mr. PARKER continues to sing and preach the gospel in different places, and we have recently increased our staff of Evangelists by the appointment of Mr. FRANK RUSSELL. This brother was set apart for evangelistic work in connection with the Surrey and Middlesex Association; but those counties do not appear to be fully ripe for such services, and therefore he will be at the disposal of churches in other parts of the kingdom, though we hope that Surrey may be able to use him also.

THE PASTORS’ COLLEGE.

BY AN OBSERVER.

As I have for several years observed the work of your College, it has occurred to me that it might not be displeasing to you to hear what can be said of the Institution by an observer. I confess that my observations may be to you of little value, seeing the College is your own child, and has grown up under your own hand and eye. But if the observations I make be without interest to you, they may not be valueless to your many generous friends and faithful helpers. And for this reason: Yourself, the Vice President, and Tutors are pleased in your Annual Report to favor us with views of the College work drawn from the inside; what I have to say shall be taken from the outside. If I shall speak with all frankness, you may be assured it is the frankness of friendliness, and that there is naught “set down in malice.”

The first thing which, as a “candid friend,” I will acknowledge is that, while I have heard many things that indicate a hearty appreciation, I have also now and then heard strictures which make me desirous of defining the niche your College occupies among the ministerial training institutions of the country. The Pastors’ College appears to me to have sprung into life amid the throes of the greatest religious and educational revolution this century has witnessed. both elements of this revolution — the religious and the educational — have, I believe as they deserve, the entire sympathy of every right-thinking individual in the country, because when properly treated they are helpful to each other. For our present purpose it is not needful to inquire whether the religious movement first excited the educational, or the educational first quickened the religious; nor will I stop to ask whether, in this result, so far as it is seen, religion has gained more from education than education has reaped from religion. The one only outcome I have in view, and that bears a relation to the work of the Pastors’ College, is this — and I think it will not be disputed — that there is now more education on the side of religious people, however gravely it may be questioned whether there is more religion on the side of the educated.

In early days, then, the problem was, How shall the Pastors’ College minister to the peculiar need of the times and circumstances that gave it birth? The solution of this problem I have watched, it must be confessed, at times with considerable anxiety. Will the young school minister satisfactorily and efficiently to the double-mouthed need? Owing its origin directly to a revival of religion, it did not take much discernment to see that it would doubtless suitably provide for the demands of a revived religion. But can it make adequate provision for a revived religion stimulated and accompanied by a higher education? Thus the question stood.

In deciding whether the Pastors’ College has risen to “the height of this great argument,” it is not a necessary condition to require that all the alumni should be “wranglers” or “double firsts.” It meets every equity of the case if there should be a number sufficient to occupy a due proportion of pulpits where scholarship as well as piety is deemed essential in the ministrations. On looking around, what do I behold? Some of the pulpits of the denomination most valuable and illustrious in past generations — the two, Cambridge and Broadmead, most famous of all — I find are occupied by men from the Pastors’ College. Nor do I observe that the laurels gained by their predecessors wither in the wearing of these younger men trained in the younger, though not the youngest, school of Baptist pastors. Such achievements are, to my mind, full of meaning. When, too, I put these results side by side with the vast and truly sympathetic efforts made to reach the masses which have their typical representatives in the East London Tabernacle and in the Shoreditch Tabernacle, in the former case backed up by much practical philanthropy extended to the miserable, I cannot but admit that the Pastors’ College is effecting a solution of the problem above stated that might give content to the most exact and to the most exacting. To the double-mouthed need it is ministering with a double handed plenitude. The comprehensiveness which enlists both a spirit and capacity, not only fully abreast of religious life and action, but which has in many places within my knowledge inspired and directed them to higher efforts, I submit fully entitles the Pastors’ College to take rank with the most vigorous and apt institutions of our times for ministerial training. I take it that its history hitherto has shown that all doubt as to its thorough fitness to fulfill the mission embodied in its name is now laid at rest. In all fairness to others as well as to myself, however, I must confess there was a period when fears would come and doubts also, though I was very averse to give them any entertainment. Would the College be a mere transient growth? Would it subside into the narrow groove of training temporary preachers and itinerant evangelists? Would it give only a rough-and-ready preparation for the lower grades of work, and send no representatives into the higher and more permanent ranks? These were questions with me in common with many friends who wished well to the undertaking. Some early indications gave me hope that in due time a full proportion of the higher forms would fall to your share. But this was not everywhere recognized, and in some quarters where it was seen to be inevitable it was not much appreciated. I trust a more generous feeling has now set in. I recall the time when you were emerging from the dreary quarters in the basement of the Tabernacle to the light and airy and commodious rooms in the substantial new College buildings, and I wondered whether that change of scene would be marked by a corresponding emergence into a freer and cheerier recognition of the College and its work.

That such a recognition had long been deserved I was convinced in my own mind. Now, I am bound to testify that I meet with few who are not of that opinion. I am inclined to look upon your new buildings as an outward and visible sign of the esteem, won by dint of merit, from the public at large. I must say, from what I have seen and heard, this esteem had to be won; nay, in some circles compelled. But being gained thus, it is the more valuable, and is likely to be the more durable.

May I now, without pretending to do anything more than is well within the range of an outside observer, glance at those qualities which have led on to success? I will not venture on the dogmatic, and you may take my opinion for what it is worth.

I have had many opportunities of observing, both the “brighter stars” and the “lesser lights” among the preachers that hail from the Pastors’ College. I have found much variety, much dissimilarity in gifts, in capacities, in styles of preaching. But in the midst of this copious variety, I think I have been able to detect a very close family likeness. The point of resemblance, and what has most impressed my mind, is that the Pastors’ College men have invariably something definite to say on the great themes of the Gospel. I find they have some crisp and pointed teaching that bears directly on the conscience, concerning the nature of sin, and the one Divine way of escape therefrom. I find that they do not aim to set these things forth on a basis of speculation, but on the authority of God’s Word. And I cannot but say that even where the: finer graces of style may be wanting — where there may be very little of eloquence, or ornament, or illustration — yet the wholesome plainness of sound doctrine, delivered with the accent of a heartfelt conviction, which I generally find among your students, has a grace and an eloquence all its own, and storms the human heart. I feel assured, too, that such ministrations are on the line of the great Evangelical testimony and message of God to perishing men in all ages. These are the chief qualities which I believe have conciliated the affections and won the support of so many of the best friends of the Gospel in “all the churches.” Alongside with these leading characteristics I note others. I regard it as a most hopeful feature that your men seem to be alive and awake to the requirements of their office. In the absence of University examinations, which I understand are not comprised in your methods, you have succeeded somehow in thoroughly arousing the energies of your men, and drawing out their capacities. I notice they come forth from College, not as if their energies had been spent there, but invigorated. An impulse rests on them; there is movement in them, and they, as a rule, rise to the demands of their work. This is a great point. For whatever be the educational standard; whether it be so low as in Queen Elizabeth’s days, when some parish clergymen were ordered by the Queen in Council to peruse the lessons in private, because they were “but meane readers;” or so high as Edward Irving set it, when he said “that no man is furnished for the ministry till he can unclasp his pocket Bible, and wherever it opens, discourse from it largely and spiritually to the people”; or so much beside the mark as to consist chiefly in “Pagan literature,” as Mr. Mozley confesses was the case with himself and others at Oxford fifty years ago; no ministerial training can be effective which does not stimulate and strengthen in the minister of the Gospel, both his capacities as a man and his graces and energies as a Christian.

Your specialty — pastoral work — implies a great deal. It may, and ought to be, the focus of many converging beams of knowledge and experience. The excellency and efficiency of your work lie, not so much in cultivating separate branches of knowledge, but in combining kindred subjects, and concentrating various lights upon your one exclusive object.

As you advance, I, in company with every well-wisher, earnestly trust you will still keep the one aim steadily in view. The proper prominence given to this will keep all parts in their rightful place. It will subordinate the literary to the devotional, the critical to the believing, the intellectual to the spiritual, the merely denominational to the broadly Catholic and Christian purposes of the ministry of the Gospel. And if you will allow me to make a suggestion, I would add that the way to secure these results increasingly, is, in addition to all your other educational machinery, to let the Word of God be increasingly an open book — open in its original languages, open in all the variety and inspired authority of its teachings — before the eyes of your students, for their humble, prayerful, and believing study. The method of Haldane, with his student-friends at Geneva, I hold to be very near the normal Christian method of preparation for the ministry. The Pastor “mighty in the Scriptures” will be “thoroughly furnished for every good work.”

VICE-PRESIDENT’S REPORT

AGAIN we are glad to report “all well.” Our numbers have been A fewer, but equal to the demands of the churches. Great assiduity in duty, and much faithful College work have characterized the past year. As usual, the men differ in talent and disposition, as also in their methods of acquiring knowledge; but, happily, they are one in their consecration to the service of the Great Master. The amount of preaching has been upon an average with former years, though the direct applications from the churches have been fewer. The change of population in the country towns and rural districts, owing to the long depression in agriculture, has greatly affected our country churches, and we are more than ever anxious to provide suitable men who will be prepared to face the self-denial incident to such increasingly difficult posts, and to fill them with the consecration, zeal, and efficiency which are necessary to secure success.

The question may be asked whether our College, based as it is on avowedly definite and peculiar principles, has in any measure ceased to be a necessity? We think not. We most gladly admit that in many quarters the same gospel is being preached, and the same Bible is reverenced. We hail gladly any evidence of approaching unity of feeling and effort in the one harvest, field; but we are more than ever persuaded that we need to bear our witness to the old Calvinistic doctrines of grace, and to uphold our distinctive view of the ordinance of believer’s baptism. Our young people are in great need of being taught something definite. Our Sunday-schools are very generally united with the Sunday-school Union, and the lessons brought before them are mainly on such general points of truth and practice as are generally styled “undenominational”; and unless we are upon our guard to maintain from the pulpit clear, definite utterances of what are our own flaws, We shall have raised up about us a race of church-members without any grip of the truth, and with no special attachment to our own, or indeed to any other body of Christians. Now, we are persuaded that such a colorless system, if it be milk for babes, is not meat for strong men. We can hardly hope to rally champions to fight for indefinite teachings and uncertain practices. The canker of Plymouth-Brotherism, the delirium of more recent ebullitions of zeal, and the growing love of change, make it imperative upon us to rear up able men who shall know what they. believe, and shall be filled with a true Biblical enthusiasm for certain ascertained divine truths, facts, and ordinances. We profess to be positive and dogmatic in our testimony for the truth as it is in Jesus. We are persuaded that to have one common garden where no one has any “burden of the Lord” laid upon him to cultivate any one portion of it, will not result in such a vintage for the great Husbandman’s praise as will be the case if we all (as led of the Spirit)are found faithful in that which is committed to our charge. We are willing to help any and all of our great Catholic societies; but in the proportion in which we expand our area of Christian sympathy we shall need to deepen and intensify our own home love. We must, as our branches spread, deepen our roofs, or the first tempest will be our downfall. We need more than ever our Denominational Colleges, and our Calvinistic Baptist Pastors’ College first and foremost of them all.
JAMES A. SPURGEON.

REMARKS BY REV. GEORGE ROGERS

THE proceedings of our College from year to year are substantially the same. It had from the first a distinctive character, which was given to it, not by man, but by God; and that distinctive character it still retains. Its position amongst other colleges and similar institutions of the present day consists not so much in that which it has in common with them as in that which it has in distinction from them. Every new society supposes a particular need, and its particular adaptation to that need. If the need be temporary only, the agency for its supply will soon cease; if the need be permanent, the agency for its supply will be required to be in continual operation. The two principal aspects of the religious world in modern times have been a growing desire for a more intellectual Christianity on the one hand, and a more powerful Christianity on the other. “What is truth?” is the language of some. “Give us bread to eat which the world knows nothing of,” is the language of others. A high-class Biblical scholarship may meet the demands of the one, but the earnest enforcement of truths already made known can alone meet the demands of the other. As these two classes in the religious world are clearly distinct from each other, it is hopeless to attempt to meet the wants of both. We are content, therefore, to leave the more controverted parts of the Bible to others, while we endeavor clearly and fully to understand and to make known that which is without controversy, and which is infinitely more important to the souls of men, who for lack of this knowledge, and this only, might perish.

It was at the time that Biblical criticism and intellectual Christianity came into unusual notice and operation, originating in Germany, and imported into Dissenting colleges, as well as others in this country, that the Pastors’ College, like a cloud about the size of a man’s hand, appeared, and poured down upon the thirsty land its reviving and fertilizing showers. No preparation was made for its coming. No plan of operation was formed. No means of support were prearranged. It was no part of organized Christianity. It grew into shape by the providential circumstances that called it into being. It took speedy possession of the opening which had been left by others for what they deemed higher, but what proved to be less fertile ground, and has there met with success beyond all other movements of the same kind unto the present day. It has not only supplied the lack of service in others, but has entered upon new spheres of successful ministrations, and is still aggressive in its movements. Its work is not done, but rather only begun; neither has any modification of its course of studies or methods of operation been required to suit what are called the demands of the present age; so little has there been of man and so much of God in its original formation, and its continual adaptation to its end.

We maintain, then, that we have our distinctive principles as a College, and that they are worth preserving still. Let us see what they are. We are at the remotest distance from secularized Christianity, and such we hope ever to remain. Endowed Christianity is at one extremity of the series and we are at the other. We should scorn to receive one farthing of the public money for doing far more for the public good than those whose hands sink deep in the public exchequer. One good reason may be that the opportunity is not likely to be given us; but we trust we should be found true to our principles if it were. We are simple in our forms of worship. In our inmost souls we loathe Ritualism, both in Conformists and in its imitations by so-called Nonconformists. Our one chief desire is to be distinguished for our zeal for the spiritual and eternal welfare of our fellow-men. We watch for souls as they that must give account. We do not by any means assume that this is entirely neglected by others, or that there are not individuals in other denominations whose zeal in this respect is not equal to our own; but that this is the one prevalent desire in those who have gone from our College, and that in this they have been remarkably blessed is a fact which it would be ungrateful, and even sinful, to disown.

It is another distinguishing peculiarity of our College, and which accounts in a great measure for its spiritual results, that it adheres to the Puritanic in distinction from the Germanic theology. This oneness of faith it is which unites Presidents, Tutors, and Students in one bond of fellowship which no after associations are able to dissolve. We rejoice that by innumerable others the grace of the gospel is equally maintained; but with hardly any other College is it, we think, so exclusively identified, and by none is it more unhesitatingly avowed. No one who has gone from us in this respect would care to avow that he had ever been of us. To these considerations we may confidently add that, although the students of the Pastors’ College might not be qualified with those of some other Colleges to pass an examination for literary honors before University Councils, they are well able to compete for the honor of acceptance as Pastors and Teachers of Christian Churches, and for long and extensive usefulness. Sufficiently versed in the original languages of both Testaments, in Biblical Science, and in all the general departments of literature to make a creditable commencement of their ministry, by diligent study and prayerful dependence upon Divine aid, and a zealous determination to qualify themselves, as far as possible, for the great end they have in view, they have not come behind any other apostles in modern times.

MR. GRACEY’S REPORT

LIKE all its predecessors of our past history, the year that now closes has been truly to the College a “year of grace.” As a result, the College has been true in heart to its great mission. At no previous period has the spirit of prayer, of faith in God, and in the gospel, of zeal for the glory of Christ, and of love for the souls of men, been more abundant among us. I cannot speak too highly of the diligence of the brethren, and of their willingness, even in cases of enfeebled health, to work to the utmost of their ability. nothing out of the ordinary course, now so well tried, has been attempted. Our chief desire has been to maintain a “patient continuance in well-doing.” The sermons read for criticism have, if anything, been above the average, and at our discussions considerable ability in debate has been shown. I have kept on with my course of lectures on Systematic Theology, using Hodge’s Handbook in a separate class. The usual classes have been held in Hebrew, Senior and Junior, where we have read portions of Genesis and the Psalms; in Greek Testament, where we have read in the Acts, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the 1st Epistle of John, and the Gospel according to Mark; in Trench’s Synonyms of the Greek Testament; in Homiletics; in Church History; in Classic Greek, where we have read in Sophocles and Homer; and in Latin, where Virgil’s AEneid, Cicero, and Horace have furnished us with subjects.

MR. FURGUSSON’S REPORT

THE steadiness of the attendance, and the constancy in faithfully carrying out the work appointed them, as far as the men in my department are concerned, have left me nothing to desire. The noiseless tenor of their way has been so uniform as to render my report a duty of the most formal character. Yet in this noiseless productive formality lie the strength, utility, and success of the object for which our department was called into existence. The men entered the College under the pressure of the high, holy, and merciful desire of honoring Christ, mainly by gathering round his cross as many brands plucked from the burning, by their ministry, as they possibly could; and everything, however humble or small, that fed this desire, was sacred in their eyes. What has been offered to them in our department they believed did minister to this passion of their life; and under this influence — that of honoring Christ by conversions chiefly; everything that helped them to foster and turn it to practical account was valued, pursued, appropriated, and made their own. Thus I can easily account for their industry. This holy hunger, in my judgment, accounts also for the constancy of their presence in the class-room, the faithfulness with which they discharged their daily duties, and the unflagging energy put forth in finishing the work given them to do. Judging from the effects of the same course of education in the actual ministry of those who have passed through it, I can assure the young men that verily their industry shall not lose its reward.

In the year that is past I have been cheered in my work by beholding in my men the unfolding of many of those features that mark the character of the Christ-sent minister. That the reader may be partaker of my joy, he will perhaps allow me to name one or two. For instance, the feature that marks a man in earnest; again, the presence of those characteristics which single out the man who feels himself personally a sinner saved by grace; also, and not the least, that marked individuality of purpose which separates from the ordinary race of workers for God the man on whose shoulders has been laid the iron necessity of preaching the gospel by our Lord Jesus Christ the Most High God. This year I have found tutorial work most pleasing. I have felt it all through the year a privilege to be associated with such men in Christ’s work. To the subscribers and friends of the College I can honestly say, from what I have seen, that in no previous year have they entrusted their gold and silver to men more able and willing to carry out the holy intentions of their liberality. Yes, they will preach the gospel after the way and manner so peculiar to the Pastors’ College; and which have been so much honored by the eternal Spirit.

It only remains for me to enumerate the classes of my department and the class-books. Its work to the reader will then appear at a glance. They are as follows: —

BIBLICAL STUDIES. — Blackie’s Bible Geography, Angus’s Bible Handbook.

ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY. — Wayland’s Ethics alternated with Butler’s Analogy, Taylor’s Elements of Thought, Thomson’s Laws of Thought, Sir William Hamilton’s Metaphysics, Fowler’s Inductive and Deductive Logic.

ENGLISH. — Lennie, Fleming’s Analysis, Bain’s English Composition, Paradise Lost (for Analysis), Roget’s Thesaurus, Exercises for composition in original papers and essays.

MR. MARCHANT’S REPORT.

THE work throughout the year has been well sustained. While a few brethren have made marked and unusual progress, the advance of my classes as a whole has, I think, been considerably above the average of the few years of my previous connection with the tutorial work of the College. We have had fewer laggards, and some of the most conspicuous instances of improvement have been among brethren whose early education was very poor, and whose steady plodding has been most commendable.

Middle Classes in Greek have been engaged with Xenophon’s “Anabasis,” and the First Book of Arnold’s Exercises. From the Latin of Cornelius Nepos, Themistocles, Aristides, and Pausanias have been translated and parsed, and the first five Eclogues from the “Bucolics” of Virgil. Arnold’s “Henry” has also been carefully gone through. The Junior Classes have, as usual, been occupied with the Grammar and Valpy’s Delectus in each language; while in Latin about twenty brethren have read the first few chapters from the Epitome of Roman History by Eutropius. In Euclid, the Seniors have gone to about the middle of the Third Book, and have done several of the Exercises as well. A Junior Class is proceeding with the First Book.

When I first partly severed myself from my Church at Hitchin, it was a matter of much anxiety to me lest my ministerial work should suffer by reason of my engagement at the College: You will be glad to know that God has been better to me than my fears. My congregations were never so good as they have been for the past three years; a spirit of unusual prayer and earnestness has animated the people; seventy persons, nearly all from the world, were last year added to the Church; while now, largely through God’s blessing on dear Messrs. Fullerton and Smith’s labors at the close of last January, many more are seeking fellowship with us. My dear people, who were also a little afraid about the result of having “only half a ministers” have learned with me an old lesson: “There is that scattereth and yet increaseth.” LAUS DEO!

MR. CHESHIRE’S REPORT

DEAR MR. SPURGEON, — In rendering my first report of our science work in connection with the College, it will perhaps be desirable, if not even necessary, for me to give a fuller reference to myself than might at other times be pardonable. In my introduction to the men I explained that however much science might be learned, as the result of our study, I, for one, should regard all as a failure if our reverence was not deepened, and the students strengthened for their work as preachers of the everlasting gospel. I soon discovered that this feeling was largely shared by my class, more conspicuously by many whose time for entering upon pastoral work was close at hand. With this idea before us we have labored, and I have been cheered again and again by spontaneous testimony that our labor has not been in vain. In my department science is our means, but not our end. God has made the visible as well as the invisible, and in both he may be seen. -True science is but the discovery of his thoughts; for as Oersted has put it — The laws of nature are the thoughts of God.

The difficulties of a Christian science-teacher are now especially great, and it has been necessary to point out that science is as yet as utterly baffled with ultimate principles as she is conversant with the manner in which those principles interwork. She can tell us what life does, often; but what life is, never. The roof of all things is hidden from her gaze if she will not look up and behold her God. In the face of modern scientific assumption, if we see this, we may be saved much anxiety, for we shall discover that we can afford to wait for the solution of many difficulties. Surely we, who have only just begun to be, cannot suppose that at the opening of an endless existence we ought to possess a full understanding of the working of the infinite mind throughout the eternal ages. Mystery must be ours, as yet, at least. If there were no mystery, then we, understanding all, should be greater than all, and God would not be a necessity in our philosophy.

We are striving in our class-work to find in nature illustrations of Christian truth, and thus, humbly, and in our measure, to make the same use of it as our Lord frequently did in his parables. For example, when we discover that the magnet not only draws other pieces of metal to itself, but that it makes them, by its very touch, into magnets, we are reminded of Christ, the great Magnet, who, being lifted up, draws all men to himself, and who by his touch changes them, and gives of himself to them so that they become magnets too. And as we further learn that nearness of the metal pieces to the Master-magnet gives them power which they lose as they recede from it, so we see the illustration of the law of Christian life, that Christ is our life, and our nearness to him the measure of our real strength.

Sometimes we cause the false assumptions (science falsely so called), unhappily nowadays getting so common, to answer themselves by example. We are told by some that to believe in an omnipresent personal God is unreasonable, and yet these very men say that every atom in the universe attracts every other; that every atom in the sun has some power over the earth; remove one atom from the sun, the aggregate of his attractive influence will be reduced. Thus, then, they teach us, and teach us truly, that every atom makes its presence felt throughout the universe: there is no point in space where it may not at the same moment assert itself. To believe in this is scientific. Oh, foolish and slow of heart to believe: How can they in the same breath tell us that to believe in an omnipresent Father is unreasonable? We believe in him because he has shown himself in the works of his hands, but more intensely because the Only Begotten Son, who was in his bosom, hath declared him.

But lest I draw this report to an excessive length, let this explanation of my position and of the direction of our work suffice.

Instead, during the past year, of entering at once upon any rigid course, I judged it best to take up points which current events made prominent; and so, in view of the excitement prevailing respecting electricity and electric lighting, took about Twelve Lectures upon this subject. I know, dear Mr. Spurgeon, you yourself feel the value of centering the attention upon what has already gained a hold upon the popular mind, and my idea was that thus the students might not only be helped in general conversation, but in illustration and allusion in their ministerial work.

‘The Temperance Movement could not be forgotten by us, and so a course of Eight Lectures was taken on the physiological aspects of this matter. I know you will agree that it is not science, but Christ-given love for our fellows, which has been the backbone of this Temperance work; for science has not a heart of its own, and knowledge without love has no impulse, and will do nothing. It was felt that a diffusion of physiological knowledge would, from this very cause, be particularly serviceable, and this course has in some measure, at least, furnished material for many addresses given in divers places by the students. Some Lectures on the Structure of Insects and their relation to flowering plants, have also been included, my South Kensington diagrams being used. Physics is now occupying our attention.

I must not close without saying that I rejoice in the opportunity my present position in the College affords for influencing for good, as I humbly trust, the men who are to do so much in the future in the propagation of a positive Gospel, while I must thank all, from our loved President downwards, for the spirit of kindness, helpfulness, and trust with which I have been received.

By reordering the old apparatus, and making very substantial additions to it, we are now provided with a very suitable and efficient instrument with which to pursue our work; and it shall be my endeavor, as it is my hope, that the considerable outlay involved shall be justified by the good work accomplished by its means.

The attendance at the Class has been uniformly good, and not infrequently we have with us those who are now settled pastors, but who come as visitors to their “Alma Mater,” and I may add that brethren from Mr. G. Guinness’s Institution are often welcomed by us.

The interest and earnestness of the students have very palpably grown, and that reserve with which a new tutor is inevitably received has given place to confidence, and so supplied constant and growing opportunity for friendly and informal converse, during which, I hope, not the least important part of my work is accomplished. May our studies be acceptable service unto the Lord, because undertaken through our Father’s grace for his honor!

CYCLE OF DAILY PRAYER

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PASTORS’ COLLEGE STUDENTS’
MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

SUNDAY. — Special prayer for the provision and preparation of laborers, and for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all missionary operations.

MONDAY. — AFRICA.

BAKUNDU: C. H. Richardson.
BLANTYRE: J. H. Dean (Invalided).
CONGO RIVER: J. H. Weeks and A. Billington.

TUESDAY. — CHINA AND JAPAN.

CHINA: S. B. Drake, Dr. E. H. Edwards, and J. J. Turner (in England at present).
JAPAN: W. J. White.

WEDNESDAY. — CONTINENT OF EUROPE.

NAPLES: N. Papengouth.
SPAIN: T. Blamire and J. P. Wigstone.

THURSDAY. — INDIA.

AGRA: J. G. Potter.
BARISAUL: R. Spurgeon.
KOTTAPATAM: R. Maplesden. SANTHALISTAN: W. S. Mitchell. Missionary Pastors: H. R. Brown, G. H. Hook, W. Norris (in England at present), and A. W. Wood.

FRIDAY. — HAYTI, BRAZIL, etc.

HAYTI: A. V. Papengouth.
PUERTO PLATA AND TURK’S ISLANDS: R. E. Gammon.
RIO DE JANEIRO: J. M. G. dos Santos.

SATURDAY. — PASTORS SETTLED ABROAD.

AUSTRALIA: J. Blaikie, E. Booth, F. G. Buckingham, W. C. Bunning, A. J. Clarke, W. Clark, W. Coller, J. Downing, S. Fairey, A. J. Hamilton, J. S. Harrison, F. Hibberd, W. Higlett, E. G. Ince, H. Morgan, M. Morris, F. Page, C.J.A.N. Padley, N. Rogers, J. A. Soper, E. Vaughan, and H. Wood.

TASMANIA: A.W. Grant, E. Isaac, R. McCullough, and R. Williamson. NEW ZEALAND: C. Dallaston, A. Fairbrother, T. Harrington, and T. Spurgeon. CAPE COLONY: H. J. Batts, G. \V. Cross, E.G. Evans, W. Hamilton, and G. C. Williams. ST. HELENA: W. J. Cother.

CANADA: H. F. Adams, H. Cocks, C. A. Cook, S. A. Dyke, J. Forth, J. Gibson, J. Grant, R. Holmes, F. A. Holzhausen, R. Lennie, J. E. Moyle, and R. Wallace.

NOVA SCOTI: J. F. Avery, H. Bool, J. Clark, and A. MacArthur.

JAMAICA: C. B. Berry and J. J, Kendon.

UNITED STATES: G. Boulsher, T. J. Bristow, W. Carnes, J. Coker, W. Fuller, A. Gibb, W. Gilkes, C. W. Gregory, R. M. Harrison, G. Ireland, T. L. Johnson (in England at present), It. A. Marshall, W. McKinney, M. Noble, W. Ostler, W. E. Prichard, R. A. Shadick, A. H. Stote, C. W. Smith, G. H. Trapp, P. J. Ward, John Wilson, and W. W. Willis.