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I find that often the devotional part of a service is marred or helped by the character of the hymns and tunes sung. It is a right noble idea of our Wesleyan friends having their hymns set to appropriate tunes, would we could follow suit; for it is no uncommon experience to have a most beautiful hymn spoilt by a most unsuitable tune. I would venture, therefore, to suggest that the present Hymnbook be (1) revised; those I have indicated as useless, being weeded out, and a few others, as the revisers may deem advisable; and certain indelicate expressions changed, which would not alter in substance the hymns.

(2) That a careful and extensive selection be made from the most beautiful and intensely spiritual, and appropriate hymns in our language, thus giving us double the number at present in the book, and the desired and needed variety.

(3) That if from pecuniary considerations it be deemed necessary to defer the matter for another 10 or 15 years, (which would be an injustice to our people) a small cheap book with limp covers containing additional hymns, be prepared and printed to be used with the old one, until the present stock be exhausted; then an entirely revised and enlarged edition be issued for future use.

(4) That if it be considered impracticable to have a Tune-book of our own forthwith, that we adopt pro. tem. the Wesleyan, until the way shall be clear, and the means at hand for providing one for ourselves.

This I consider to be an important matter, and sincerely trust will be taken up heartily and unitedly by us as a body. Leaving these suggestions for the consideration of your readers,-I am, dear sir, very truly yours,

Torrington, August 30th, 1882.

J. OSBORNE KEEN. P.S.-I can supply the numbers of what I regard the useless hymns in the collection if desired.

THE COLLEGE. SHEBBEAR. AT the recent Oxford Local Examination, one of the pupils of the school is placed third, in order of merit, in the first class honours list, senior. He is first in England in English, first in England in Latin, third in England in Greek, and takes second class honours in mathematics and music theory. He is also recom. mended to the Royal Geographical Society, for the silver medal as the best pupil in England in Geography.

District Meeting.

BRISTOL. This meeting was held at Draycott, in the Weare Circuit, where it was held two years ago. Those of us who on that occasion formed the acquaintance, and shared the kind hospitality of the Draycott friends, were glad of the opportunity of paying them another visit; while they seemed equally pleased to welcome us again to their homes. In some respects the lapse of two years appeared to have produced but little change in this place, there was the same kindness and heartiness, the same interest in our connexional welfare; and many of the same faces-but not all. Some were missing; we could not fail to observe changes in this respect. Some we learnt had made their homes in lands beyond the sea, may they be blest and still be made a blessing. Others have responded to the call "come up higher"; and while we feel like rejoicing when we think of their gain, of their eternal exemption from all the ills of this life, of the victory, the rest, the reward, which are theirs, our hearts are saddened to think of the loss sustained by their removal. How they must be missed, in the circuit, in the

* Received too late for last month.

Draycott society, and still more (as the starting tear plainly told), by those who best knew and appreciated their worth. May He, who has promised to be a Father to the fatherless and a husband to the widow, graciously sustain and comfort those sorrowing hearts.

THE MEETING

Commenced on Wednesday, June 28th, under the presidency of our genial and esteemed superintendent, Br. T. C. Penwarden. Br. A. Trengove was elected secretary; Br. M. T. Penrose, journal secretary; aud Bros. J. Gifford and J. C. Sweet, reporters.

RESOLUTIONS OF SYMPATHY

With the widows of deceased ministers, and with the superannuated brethren T. Wooldridge and T. W. Garland, and also with Br. T. Andrews who was unable to attend the meeting through affliction, were cordially passed.

THE STATISTICS

Show an increase of 192 full members, I minister, 7 local preachers, 30 teachers, and 43 scholars. The Circuit receipts are £56 8s. 5d. in advance of last year. The chapel income for the year amounts to £1377 7s. 10d (exclusive of £235 raised for a new chapel at Keinton, in the Somerton Circuit), being an increase of £420 145. 3d. on the full year's returns; and £416 more than the highest amount ever reported before; and only £1 4s. short of treble the sum returned in 1873. God has been with us of a truth, and nearly every circuit in the district has witnessed more or less of His saving power. This fact called forth many expressions of devout gratitude to God; and in the discussion on the spiritual state, the all important fact was repeatedly emphasized that the measure of our success will be in proportion to our personal consecration to God, and the directness and constancy of our efforts to win souls.

THE YOUNG MEN ON PROBATION.

W. J. Smith, J. G. Nancekivell, and R. J. Hopgood, having previously filled up their papers, were on Thursday morning, after a careful examination, passed on to their fourth year; and Br. W. Babidge, a candidate who also passed a creditable examination, was heartily recommended to the Conference as a suitable person to be received into the ministry.

THE PUBLIC SERVICES

Commenced with a Temperance meeting on Tuesday evening, presided over by Br. R. Orchard, when resolutions approving of the "Local Option Resolution" and the "Sunday Closing Bill," were unamimously carried, after having been spoken to by the brethren W. Higman, J. C. Sweet, J. Brown, and J. Gifford. On Wednesday morning a sermon was preached by Br. W. J. Smeeth. who based his remarks on Luke ix. 56. In the evening the chairman of the district delivered an earnest and practical sermon from Acts iv. 13; the next day a vote of thanks was heartily accorded him for his discourse. On Thursday, at 6 a.m., the pulpit was occupied by Br. W. Babidge, who took for his text Romans v. I. In the afternoon the usual fellowship meeting was held, and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper administered. This was a season of refreshing, the Lord was eminently near while the brethren spoke of the joys, and sorrows, the conflicts and victories of another year.

A Public Tea followed. which was well patronized. The evening meeting which was presided over by Br. Penwarden, was addressed by Br. W. T. Penrose on "National Education and the requirements of Sunday Schools." Br. A. Trengove on "The importance of individual effort in promoting religious prosperity." Br. W. Higman, "The right attitude of Christians in relation to Political and Social life," and by Bro. C. Dening on "Pastoral work and how to

do it." This was a good meeting; the brethren spoke well, and at times a powerful influence rested upon the congregation. The usual votes of thanks were passed, and this interesting and harmonious session came to a close.

Our Miscellany.

CHRIST'S CHOICE

OF

J. C. SWEET.

APOSTLES.

"EVERY religious teacher, if in earnest, will be a proselytizer.

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he will never be satisfied with merely impressing the multitude; but will store his teaching privately in a few choicer minds. Hence all the world's

greatest teachers have gathered around them disciples. . . . Socrates frequented the market-place and gymnasia of Athens at their busiest hours, and was ready to talk with anybody; but there clustered around him a group of pupils, whom he took pains to instruct in the esoteric parts of his system. . . . The thoughts of mankind were moulded and stamped in succeeding ages by the rough old Greek, who, through Plato and Aristotle, his intellectual heirs, exercised a widening power through many generations. The same principle is

acknowledged by the Saviour in a remarkable degree.

Having taken upon Him our nature, it was in complete agreement with His design, that He should employ for the diffusion of the Gospel, not the legions of trumpeting angels, but the simple tongues of the men He had persuaded and enlisted.

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It has been suggested that He chose the apostles, not from

a view to their fitness, but with a desire to magnify in them His transforming grace. No doubt "God hath chosen the weak things," &c. But the apostle falls short of teaching that the foolish and weak are selected specially because of their folly and weakness. Often it may seem as though God chooses unfit instruments, when in the judgment of a wisdom that discards our shifting social standards they are the fittest . . our Lord did not disregard natural fitness. First among His motives in the choice of apostles was His desire for sympathy; second, that they should bear witness of all they saw and heard whilst remaining with Him without so rich a legacy of evidence left to posterity, it is not easy to see how the religion of Christ could make its way in the world. But, granted the need of witnesses, were the men competent ? The miracles of Jesus were of a kind that the humblest observer could judge. For shrewdness is no monopoly of the educated; what men lack in artificial knowledge is often made up by a full share of motherwit. . . We have yet

to learn why a common-sense fisherman like Peter cannot tell as credibly about a miraculous draught or a coin found in the haddock's mouth as Gamaliel, or why the same disciple should not be as sound a witness in the matter of his mother-inlaw's recovery as Caiaphas would have been, or Pontius Pilate ? ... If they were disqualified by inferior station from bearing trustworthy evidence, they were thereby incapacitated for the concoction of a clever forgery. It may be

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said that they were men too much of one class and neighbourhood. band comprised two or three pairs of brothers, four partners, five natives of the same country town, and in all probability two or more relations of the Lord.. Why not draw more evenly from every rank? Precisely what an impostor would have done to disarm inquiry. But, as His friends were of the humble order, these were the only persons accessible for the service.

"He ordained twelve." In His choice we cannot fail to see that as the sun can turn a chip of glass into a flashing gem, or transfigure the dullest bank of cloud

into a Himalaya range, so the least promising material can, in His hands, be manipulated to grandest ends.

THE BEST EVIDENCE.

Every other evidence is weak compared with that which is based on the lives of its present professors. Where is our Lord to be found? Is it in the life of the self-seeking Christian whom "the world cannot hate" (John vii. 7, "Oh! the condemning irony of those words")? Nay, these are the infidelmakers of society ten times rather than our overbold speculative writers."-From The Companions of our Lord, by C. E. B. Reed. R.T.S.

Twelve apostles chosen. "Agreeably to the twelve tribes of Israel; that as they were the beginning of the Church of the Jews, so are these of the Gentiles.,' -Lightfoot.

The heathen world at the time of the Gospel.-The heathen world was in its worst condition. The western regions, towards which the course of missions took its way, were prevalently Greek and Roman; but it was a conquered Greece and a corrupted Rome. It was a Greece which had lost its genius and retained its falsity; a Rome which had lost its simplicity and retained its coarseness. It was a Greece in her lowest stage of seducer and parasite; it was Rome at the epoch of her most gorgeous gluttonies and her most gilded rottenness. The heart of the Roman empire under the Cæsars was "a fen of stagnant waters." Only a few were like an Epictetus and an Aurelius, with "minds naturally Christian.”— Farrar's Paul, I. 331.

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CHARACTER OF PETER.

Peter was turned aside by gusts of impulse and temptation. At one time he was the first to confess Christ's divinity, at another the first to treat Him with presumption. One moment he becomes His disciple, at another bids Him depart because he was a sinful man. Now he plunges into the sea all faith, now he sinks into the waves all fear. Now, single-handed, draws the sword for his Master against a multitude, now denies Him at the question of a servant-maid. At one time a bold champion of Gentile equality, at another suddenly tempted by fear of man to betray the cause which he had helped to win. He was consistently inconsistent.

"And as the water-lily starts and slides

Upon the level in little puffs of wind,

Though anchored to the bottom-such was he."-Farrar.

CHRIST'S RELATION TO MAN THE GROUND OF HIS INCARNATION.

"WHILE no necessity compelled the Second Person of the Trinity to become Jesus Christ of Nazareth, there was a fitness in His doing so. He became man because of the intimate relation He stood in to the race as a whole, and to all its members. This is a department of Scripture truth which has been too often lost sight of by writers on the doctrine of the Atonement, and hence they have failed to meet some of the most important demands which have been made upon them. If Jesus is to represent man, He must have a peculiar fitness to do so, which will be as apparent as that which the first Adam possessed when he stood before God as the federal head of his race. That He had this fitness is proved by no obscure statement in the Old and New Testaments. (1.) It was in Christ, as well as by Christ, as the Divine Logos, that the race was originally constituted. God said, "Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness," which declaration is not by any means exhausted by saying Adam was the image of God. This, indeed, he was not

He was only made in the image and after the likeness; and this image, we are assured by Paul, was none other than Jesus Christ, "Who is the image of the invisible God." In looking at the creation of man, we have (1.) man created, (2) the image upon which he was created, and (3) we have the Creator, God. So that the Divine Logos is the Divine person nearest to man, and related to Adam more closely than any other—the Mediator of Creation as well as Redemption. This view is corroborated by those far-reaching revelations of the Divine genealogy of Jesus, which are recorded in the Prologue of John's Gospel, Jno. i. 3, 4, 9. This same Light is "the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Sustaining such intimate relations to the race of man as Creator and Imparter of light and life, its members were peculiarly “ His own. Before the earth was formed and its inhabitants produced, as "the wisdom of God," Jesus thought of those who should be formed after the image of God. He loved them ideally, and as He thought of them His heart was moved with feeling," rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth," Prov. viii. 31. Being so closely associated with man in his ideal, origin, and relationship, it was Divinely becoming that when man fell and lost his original standing in faith and righteousness, the Son of God should descend and rescue him."-Adamson, Nature of Atonement, Evangelical Union Doctrinal Series.

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CHRIST'S DEATH.

"His death is more pregnant with meaning and influence than His life. 'In this respect,' says Crawford, 'Christ assuredly stands alone of all the generations of men that ever lived. It cannot be said that dying is their appointed work. They came into the world for the purpose of doing. And death is to them, not only the termination, but often the subversion and frustration of all that throughout life they have striven to accomplish. Of the Lord Jesus, however, it may be said He came pre-eminently in order to die; and that by this death the end of His life was fully accomplished.' Suffering and death were no accidents of His mission, but entered into the plan portioned out to Him by the will of His Father."Adamson.

Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. In his brief second visit to the churches of Galatia, on his road to Ephesus, Paul seems to have missed the bright enthusiasm which welcomed His first preaching. His keen eye marked the germ of coming danger. But he could hardly have expected the painful tidings that converts once so dear and so loving had relapsed from everything that was distinctive in his teaching into the shallowest ceremonialism of his Judaising opponents.

It was against all this hypocrisy, this retrogression, this cowardice, this mummery of the outward, this reliance on the mechanical, that Paul used words that were half-battles. . He would leap ashore among his enemies, and burn his ships behind him. He would draw the sword against this false gospel, and fling away the scabbard. What Luther did when he nailed his Theses to the door of the Cathedral of Wittemberg, that St. Paul did when he wrote the Epistle to the Galatians, It was the manifesto of emancipation. It marked an epoch in history. It was for the early days of Christianity what would have been for Protestantism the Confession of Augsburg and the Protest of Spires combined; but it was these "expressed in dithyrambs, and written in jets of flame ;" and it was these largely intermingled with an intense personality and impassioned polemics. It was a De Corona, a Westminster Confession, and an Apologia in one. . . To the churches of Galatia he never came again; but the words scrawled on those few sheets of papyrus, whether they failed or not of their immediate effect, were to wake echoes which should "roll from soul to soul, and live for ever and for ever."Farrar

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