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regaled with the honied words of the skilful orator, and sweet music, and all the accessories of a sensuous and voluptuous worship.

The example of Christ, then, demands of all His disciples a service of self-sacrifice, that we should minister to His people not only in health and strength but in weakness, suffering, and conflict, and it may be even with many cries and tears. May a passion of love to Christ, and a more constant and a richer fellowship with Him, deepen this spirit in our hearts, making us equal to our highest work, and to taste more fully of that joy which sustained Him in his deepest sorrow -a joy which He only can give, and which the world can neither give nor take away! Pride, selfishness, and formality have ever been the bane of the Church and the death of all self-sacrificing zeal. May the love of the Great Master, as illustrated by every incident of His life and death, put them under our feet and ever keep them there!

O unrequited, changeless love!
O heart so full of grief!
Yet full of self-forgetful toil,
Intent on our relief;

Oh, raise these selfish hearts of ours
To breathe a purer air;

The lowly, self-renouncing heart
Is happy everywhere.

The selfish heart is like a heath
O'errun with weeds of care;
'Tis like a desert waste and dry,
No fruit of joy can bear:
The lowly heart is like a spring
Whose waters ever flow,

Which carry life and sweet content,
All singing as they go.

O waters, ever calm and pure,

And to the thirsty sweet,

Oh, flow through us, and onwards pass

To other pilgrim feet!

O Jesus! Master! stoop to us,

That we to Thee may bend,

That so the poor, and weak, and lost

May find in us a friend.

Oh, make us earnest in our work,

And loving, true, and meek,

And let our faith when overcast

Thy patient love still seek ;

Oh, let us know the peace which comes,
Distilling as the dew,

On those who, though discouraged, work,
Unseen, but brave and true.

Most blessed 'tis to serve and wait,
To weep and still work on,
To battle hard for human hearts,
Though small the conquest won;

Brighton.

To toil unknown for those who hate,
Or only spurn our love,

Is still to taste a secret joy

Akin to theirs above.

Our actions do not lose themselves,
Or waste their strength on air,
They each and all come back again,
And bless us everywhere;

And though the heart grows weak and faint
For joy success oft gives,

Still in our secret heart of hearts

A nameless sweetness lives.

Oh, let us taste the honey sweet
Which feeds the lowly heart,

The joy of that sweet sorrow known
Thou waitest to impart;

Then, though despised, we'll still pursue

Life's rugged path though steep,

Until at last we see Thy face,

And endless Sabbath keep.

NEWS OF THE CHURCHES.

THE chapel in Wynne Road, Brix- alteration.-The memorial stone of ton, has been reopened after alterations. The memorial stones of an enlarged chapel have been laid in New Cross Road, London, for the ministry of the Rev. J. S. Anderson. --The foundation stone of a new chapel has been laid in Newport Street, Tiverton, for the ministry of the Rev. J. Carey.-The chapel in Broad Street, Ross, Herefordshire, under the care of the Rev. J. Smalley, has been reopened after alteration and improvement. A new The Rev. R. T. Rogers has been chapel and schoolroom have been recognised as the pastor of the opened at Moreton, near Bourn, to Church in the Lower Chapel, Chesbe under the care of the Rev. W. ham, Bucks; the Rev. J. Cole of Orton, of Bourn.—The memorial the Church in Providence Chapel, stone of a new chapel has been laid Coseley; the Rev. G. West of the at Nelson, near Burnley. The Church in Salem Chapel, Boston, chapel at Attleborough, Norfolk, Lincolnshire; the Rev. T. Burditt, under the care of the Rev.. E. M.A., of the Church at Rawdon, Mason, has been reopened after near Leeds; the Rev. W. Jeffery, alteration and enlargement.-The late of Westbury, of the Church at chapel at Creech St. Michael, near Bexley Heath, Kent; the Rev. G. Taunton, has been reopened after Whittet, late of Brandenburgh, of

a new chapel has been laid at
Highgate, London.-A new chapel
has been opened at Hugglescote,
Leicestershire, for the ministry of
the Rev. J. Salisbury.
- A new
chapel has been opened at Ipswich,
for the ministry of the Rev. T. S.
Morris.-A new (Albemarle) chapel
has been opened at Taunton, Som-
erset, for the ministry of the Rev.
O. Tidman.

the Church at Wishaw; the Rev. | Westminster, to Leyton, Essex; W. Satchwell, of the Church in the Rev. J. Dixon, of Attleborough, Grange Road, Jarrow-on-Tyne; the Norfolk, to Tamworth; the Rev. Rev. C. B. Berry, of the Church at W. Crick, to Harlington, MiddleCullingworth, Bingley, Yorkshire; sex; the Rev. D. W. Laing, of the the Rev. W. C. H. Hanson, of the Metropolitan Tabernacle College, Church in Howard Street, North to Alfred Place, Old Kent Road, Shields; the Rev. G. Wheeler, of London; the Rev. J. L. Cooper, of the Church in Bond Street, Bir- Bristol College, to Wells, Somerset. mingham; the Rev. J. J. Fitch, of The Rev. J. P. Mursell has the Church at Lymington, Hants; deemed it necessary, on account of the Rev. T. G. Gathercole, of the advancing age, to retire from the Metropolitan Tabernacle College, pastorate of the Church in Belvoir of the Church at Martham, Norfolk; Street, Leicester. The Rev. G. the Rev. A. English, of the Church Sear has resigned the pastorate of at Bethesda, Trowbridge; the Rev. the Church in North Street, HalJ. Longson, late of Rawdon Col- stead, Essex. The Rev. J. M. lege, of the Church at Weston-by- Camp has resigned his pastorate at Weedon. Parson's Hill, Woolwich, having been appointed agent of the Liberation Society for South London. The Rev. C. Starling has intimated his intention to resign his pastorate of the Church in Henrietta Street, Brunswick Square, London. The Rev. H. Dolamore has resigned his pastorate in Water-street, Stafford. The Rev. J. J. Light has resigned his pastorate at Charlbury, Oxon.

We regret to announce the death

The following reports of MINISTERIAL CHANGES have reached us since the preparation of our last issue-The Rev. J. W. Genders, of Park Street, Luton, to Kentstreet, Portsea; the Rev. W. W. Robinson, of Mansfield Road, Nottingham, to Claremont Street, Shrewsbury; the Rev. R. Lewis, of Plymouth, to West Street, Rochdale; the Rev. J. Manning, late of Aberdeen, to St. George's-street, of the Rev. W. F. Burchell, formerly Ipswich; the Rev. H. Hughes, of Wem, Shropshire, to Countesthorpe, Leicestershire; the Rev. C. F. Jamieson, of Rawdon College, to Riddings, Derbyshire; the Rev. D. Thomas, of Hengood, to Porth, Rhondda Valley; the Rev. H. Webster, of Mills' Hill, Chadderton, to Royton, near Oldham; the Rev. J. S. Morris, of Romney Street,

of Rochdale and Blackpool, at the age of seventy-seven; also of the Rev. G. A. Young, of Kilmarnock, N.B., at the age of thirty-seven; also of the Rev. J. Macfarlane, of Elgin, at the age of forty-eight; also of the Rev. D. Cranbrook, formerly of Bethel Chapel, Maidstone, at the age of eighty-eight.

ON SOME OF THE

JULY, 1876.

SUBORDINATE CHARACTERS

OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM BROCK.

VII.-PHOEBE OUR SISTER.

It is difficult to imagine the Epistle to the Romans, now such an integral part of our English Bible, as a roll of paper or parchment, freshly written in Greek letters by an ordinary scribe, and about to be conveyed from Corinth to Rome in the charge of an ordinary traveller. The very name, however, of the scribe is preserved to us; "I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle." And as to the bearer, the note at the end of the letter is probably correct; "sent by Phoebe, servant of the Church at Cenchrea." She was one well worthy to be entrusted with the spiritual treasure. The incidental notice of her character deserves our own attention. "I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which is a servant of the Church which is at Cenchrea; that ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also " (Rom. xvi. 1, 2).

Cenchrea, then, was this lady's home. Cenchrea was on the sea, a thriving town about eight miles from Corinth; and it was the port from which the Corinthian commerce was carried on with Asia Minor and the East. Thence Paul had sailed for Jerusalem on a former occasion, "having shorn his head in Cenchrea ;" and there, as in the neighbouring city, he had been the means of establishing a Christian Church. Phoebe, intending to travel westward, would pass through Corinth on her road, and embark from the opposite shore of the Isthmus, at the port of Lechæum, whence ships sailed for Italy.

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There are indications that she was a person of considerable influence, and even wealth. She had "business on which it was necessary to travel to the capital; and a journey so expensive and wearisome implies a corresponding importance in the traveller. Her practical aid was generously and widely bestowed; others besides the apostle had experienced it. She was a succourer of many;" and the original word implies the ideas which we connect with patronage and protection. She had a broad wing under which to shelter the afflicted. Add to this that she was probably a widow, since only in that character could she have travelled so independently, and that she would have, like Lydia, servants in attendance, and a large group of friends to bid her farewell, and we see all that can now be seen of the circumstances of her departure for Rome.

Her Christian character, however, is very distinctly brought out.

VOL. XIX. N.S. VII.

The Apostle himself guarantees the genuineness of her faith, when he calls her " our sister." The Roman brethren may receive her with perfect confidence as one with them "in the Lord." At Cenchrea she was not only a recognised member, but an active and useful "servant of the Church." Indeed, a question of considerable interest arises as to whether she was not an office-bearer there. Many would translate, "a deaconess of the Church at Cenchrea." A wider question is, therefore, involved: were there deaconesses in the primitive Church, answering to the deacons, and set apart for a corresponding purpose?

The famous letter of Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, written early in the second century, speaks of two Christian women, "who were called ministers," having been examined by torture. This looks as if a

female order of some kind existed in the churches of Asia Minor at that time. In the New Testament itself, besides the passage under notice, the only similar indications are in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus; and these are too vague to sustain any very definite conclusion. The probable fact is that there was no actual order of deaconesses in apostolic days; but that wherever a Christian woman showed signs of unusual prudence, piety, and courage, and enjoyed sufficient leisure for the service, she was joyfully accepted as a fellow-labourer. She would do such work as elders and deacons failed to do so well, or could not do at all. She would answer to the Bible-woman, or the district visitor, of the present day. Perhaps she would be entrusted with the alms of the Church, and with the relief and refreshment of its poor and of its sick. Such a servant was Phoebe to the Church at Cenchrea; such to the Church at Rome were Tryphena and Tryphosa, and "the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord; " and such at Philippi, "those women which laboured with me in the Gospel." Let the churches find room and exercise for all gifts! There is no need to invent any new name, or to establish any special office or order. "Servants of the church" are wanted everywhere. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," and so become like this lady of the early time, a succourer of many."

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A glorious sphere of interest and activity is opened by the Gospel to the women who embrace it. Those of them who are without domestic ties and responsibilities may find a place in the very van of the Christian army, and may achieve some of the noblest missionary work. In the most dangerous districts of Paris, in the Indian zenanas, among the women and children of China, English ladies labour at this hour with a devotedness and a success never exceeded by the stronger sex. Without leaving her home, or neglecting her children, the matron may have her class or her district, and there may do the work of an evangelist, and shed a heavenly influence round. The slander that a woman's mind can only care for trifles and frivolities receives its best rebuke in the history of the kingdom of God. The cry for * 1 Tim. iii. 11 (where "their wives" may rather be "the women," i.e. the women-deacons); and Titus i 3.

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