We are indebted to the devout and in-one was talking of Dr. Cumming's "Apocagenious, though anonymous author of "The Stars and the Angels" (1) for a very suggestive volume. His arguments, it is true, often remind us of an inverted pyramid, his deductions go far beyond his premises, and he deals with themes which transcend the sphere of mundane consciousness. Conclusions so vast and remote are sought to be established by proofs so slender and fragile, that a belief in the writer's inspiration is necessary for their acceptance. For instance, his first engraving is our Lord passing through the stellar universe on his ascension; his second, the earth as seen from the moon; his third and fourth,

ductions of his muse their charm. We We of course must take exception to the may apply to them James Hamilton's High Church doctrines which here and there quaint antithesis they are both "graceful intrude themselves; as for instance, where and gracious." The volume is got up Abraham Jackson carries his new-born with so much taste and beauty as to daughter to church "to be made a Chrisrender it an appropriate though inexpen- tian"! These allusions, which to us are sive gift book. We are glad to see Mr. blemishes, are, however, rare, and need not Hall's admirable discourse on preaching, interfere with our warm recommendation. delivered to the Congregational Union at -"Bertram Noel," the second volume on their recent meeting, reprinted in an inex- our list, is one of a series of tales favourably pensive form (3). Mr. Hall insists upon reviewed in our January number, and is preaching being simple, forcible, natural, quite equal to its companions. The motto earnest, practical, and evangelical. We of the present volume is, "He that ruleth entirely concur in his strongly-expressed his spirit is more mighty than he that opinion, that "the general adoption of taketh a city." This inspired sentence is reading in the pulpit would be very disas- very well wrought out and illustrated.trous to pulpit success." It is with regret We should like to speak in high terms of and anxiety that we perceive the spread of "The Heirs of the Farmstead" (3). The this most injurious innovation among our motive and design of the book are excelyounger ministers.-Small in bulk, but lent; the descriptions are frequently vivid of high merit, is the little volume of and graphic. Those who know the district biography, by Dr. Stoughton, which and its population say that their characcomes next on our list (4). The his- teristic features are often hit off with a tories of Tyndale, Hooper, and White- photographic accuracy. Still the story field, are narrated in that graceful, flowing, and picturesque style which invests all the productions of Dr. Stoughton with so great a charm. The lives of these three worthies have furnished him with a congenial theme upon which he has first discoursed, and then written, with even more than his usual success.

In the "Four Sisters" (1) Messrs. Routledge and Co. have published a volume of most pleasing tales for the young. The four virtues are represented, not by mere cold, bloodless abstractions, like the characters in the ancient mysteries, or the heroes and heroines of allegorical poetry"such faultless monsters as the world ne'er saw." Each of them is a veritable living, breathing girl;

A creature not too bright or good For human nature's daily food; For transient sorrow, simple wiles, Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. The incidents are natural and well told; the moral lessons inculcated are excellent; there can scarcely be a better book for the class to whom the writer dedicates it," the elder daughters of my poorer neighbours."

The

seems to us heavy and confused. incidents are frequently improbable, and the characters talk unnaturally. In spite of these defects the story is not without power and value.-Miss Jones has published a tale, of which the spirit and design are excellent, and the composition graceful (4). The principal incident, however, is improbable. Burglary is not a crime into which stylish gamblers would be likely to plunge, and we confess that we should with the jury have doubted the statement of the prisoner who was seized with a crowbar in his hand, that he was running away with it to prevent violence. So long as Miss Jones keeps within her own sphere of elegant female society she writes admirably.

Our Sunday schools have called into existence a literature of their own. The difficulty now is not to discover, but to select, the books to be used. A month ago we gave high commendation to the productions of the Sunday School Union. "The Sunday Teacher's Treasury" (1) seems to us to deserve even higher praise. For practical utility we have rarely seen a magazine more admirably adapted to the class for which it is designed. The scriptural lessons are remarkably clear, full, and suggestive."The Youth's Magazine" (2) is an established favourite, and deservedly so. The volume for 1857 is full of information on manifold subjects, conveyed in a way likely to interest and instruct the youngsters.

Intelligence.

ANNIVERSARY AND OPENING

SERVICES.

SARRATT, HERTS.-On Monday, February 1, a tea-meeting, followed by a public meeting, was held to celebrate the enlargement of the chapel here. Only in May last this church was formed. It then consisted of five members, dismissed for that purpose from Watford. Mr. Wern, of Harrow, undertook the pastorate. It now numbers twenty-four members. The chair was taken by Mr. Dawson, of Watford. The Rev. Messrs. Wycherly and Wern, and Messrs. Short and Wright, with the chairman, addressed the meeting. EAGLE COURT SABBATH SCHOOL, CLERKENWELL.-The twenty-second anniversary of these schools was celebrated by a tea and public meeting, on Tuesday, February 2nd. The following gentlemen delivered addresses to the teachers and friends: Rev. J. H. Cooke, who presided; Revs. J. Russell, W. Radbourn, J. Weir, D.D., W. Barker, and J. S. Stanion.

UNION CHAPEL, LUTON.-The annual tea-meeting in connection with this place of worship, was held on Tuesday, February 9, when 650 persons were present. Owing

to the over-crowded state of the school

rooms, the meeting adjourned after tea to the chapel. The Rev. J. Makepeace presided. Addresses were delivered by the Revs. D. Gould, P. H. Cornford, T. Hands, and J. Mules. The Rev. J. Smith, who had been fellow-labourer with Mr. Makepeace in India, then delivered an address of nearly two hour's length, of a deeply interesting character.

HAMPSTEAD HOLLY BUSH HILL CHAPEL. A tea-meeting was held in this chapel on Thursday, the 4th. The pastor presided. After tea addresses were delivered by the Rev. J. H. Cooke, W. Walker, R. Ware, and Mr. Evans. The attendance was very good.

the church and chapel had been read by
the pastor, Rev. D. M. N. Thomson, the
meeting was addressed by Rev. Messrs.
Stuart, M'Pherson, Hall, and Betts. The
M'Conkey, Sibree, Ollerenshaw, Upton,
will amount to about £120.
sum realised up to the close of the services

RECOGNITION SERVICE. HASTINGS.-On Tuesday, February 9th, a meeting was held to welcome the Řev. J. C. Fishbourne to the pastorate. Upwards of 300 sat down to tea, and at the public meeting the large room was quite crammed. The proceedings were commenced by the Rev. J. C. Fishbourne. Mr. Bickle, one of the deacons, followed, saying, that the declining state of the church had left them almost in despair; but that he believed they should now go on and prosper. The Revs. J. Haycroft, J. Griffin, R. Rymer, and Porter, then addressed the meeting, which was of a very interesting and hopeful character.

PRESENTATION.

NITON, ISLE OF WIGHT.-On Wedthe occasion of the leaving of the Rev. nesday, January 27th, a soirée was held on J. C. Green, who has held the pastorate during the last ten years: After tea a public meeting was held, when a presentation of plate, in the form of an elegant tea and coffee service, took place.

MINISTERIAL CHANGES.

The Rev. J. J. Owen, of Paddington, has resigned his pastorate, and will be able to supply any vacant pulpit. Mr. Owen's address is 9, Elgin Crescent, Bays. water.-The Rev. W. J. Stuart, Ripley, will terminate his connection with the churches of Loscoe and Swanwick, Derbyshire, on March 28th, and on April 4th will enter, God willing, upon the important field of evangelistic labour in connection with Stanningley and Pudsey, West Riding, YorkCENTENARY AND RE-OPENING OF SALT- shire. At the same time, the Rev. HOUSE-LANE CHAPEL, HULL.-The cen- W. Gray will cease his ministrations at tenary of the above chapel was commemo- Ripley and Smalley, Derbyshire, and comrated on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and mence stated pastoral labour at Ashby-deWednesday, the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th la-Zouch, Leicestershire.-The church and of January, having been closed fourteen congregation worshipping in the Baptist weeks for improvements and repairs. It chapel, Conistone, Lancashire, having given was re-opened on the first of the above days, the Rev. John Myres, of Horton College, a when sermons were preached, in the morn- unanimous and pressing invitation to being and evening by Rev. H. J. Betts, and come their pastor, Mr. Myres has complied in the afternoon by Rev. R. Bell. On with their request, and enters on his labours Monday evening Rev. H. J. Betts again on the first Sabbath in February.-Mr. W. preached; Rev. A. Ollerenshaw preached C. Jones, of Regent's Park College, has on Wednesday evening; and on Tuesday accepted the unanimous invitation of the evening there was a crowded and enthu- Church in Earl Street, Southwark, to siastic meeting held in the saloon of the become their pastor, and will speedily enter Sailors' Institute. After a brief history of upon his work.

Correspondence.

"It

ism; to which Mr. Sheppard's reply is, "I conceive that it cannot be proved that you might not have an equal extension of Christianity under either system. cannot be proved!" Perhaps not; but what is this to the purpose? I did not say it could be proved; I only said I thought so, and for aught that Mr. Sheppard has advanced, I may think so still. The sentence which follows this, in which Mr. Sheppard says, "I can have no sufficient grounds on which to conclude" that Christianity would not have some vital extension under a state church, is aside from the subject, since the question relates, not to the actual, but the comparative spread and power of the gospel. Besides, I have neither made, nor hinted at, any

A STATE CHURCH IN INDIA. To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. SIR, I thank Mr. John Sheppard for his rebuke. It is a compliment to be thought worthy of reproof by such a man; and if I feel it necessary to say a few words in reply to his animadversions, I trust the high esteem-I may say, the loving reverence-in which I hold him will preserve me from everything by which his feelings, however sensitive, might be wounded. I must frankly say, at the outset, that as an anti-state-churchman, I am not one after Mr. Sheppard's model. He styles himself a defensive Nonconformist," I avow myself an aggressive one; it is not likely, therefore, that my opinions, however gently expressed, would meet with his approbation. Now for the matter in hand. From such conclusion. intentional injustice I am sure that Mr. Sheppard is at an unmeasurable remove; yet he has done me injustice. Here is an instance of it. In quoting my sentiments, he places the words prelacy and state churches," which I had used in a former part of the paragraph, and in a different connection, in close juxta-position with the sentence which he condemns. This I think is hardly fair. My immediately preceding language is," To us it would be a matter of the deepest regret to see India covered, like England, with a net-work of ecclesiastical mercenaries, presided over by a bench of oriental prelates." The evils of a system thus precisely described are those of which I speak.

This first injustice leads to a second. In a subsequent paragraph your correspondent endeavours to expel from my "unadvised and objectionable" sentence the idea of a "state" establishment" of religion (again marking as a quotation a phrase which I have not used), and thus reduces my objection exclusively to corruptness of doctrine, under which head he brings in, first, the Scottish Episcopalians, and afterwards Pædo-baptists universally, as liable to my intended censure. In this he is quite wrong. Every one who will read the entire passage on page 26 of your January number, will see that my objection is raised, not against any form of Christianity as corrupt in doctrine, but simply and exclusively against state churches, or, as I have called them, "secular religious establishments." Your correspondent's references to the Scottish Episcopalians and the Pædo-baptists are, therefore, wholly irrelevant, and I take no further notice of them. So much for the outworks, now for his main position.

My affirmation was, in substance, that a state church would form a greater hindrance to the diffusion of Christianity than pagan

at

I have now to notice a third point in which your correspondent has done me injustice. In my paper, immediately after the sentence on which he has animadverted, stands the following:-" The evils of paganism are at least external to Christianity, and the objects of its direct attack; while those of secular religious establishments are within Christianity itself, protected and cherished by the very influences which ought to destroy and eradicate them." I here assign a reason for forming so grave a judgment of the obstructive influence of a state church as compared with paganism; would it not have been fair in my reprover to have put it into the balance, and weighed it? The sentence, however, has further the effect-and the intended effect-of modifying that which precedes it, by the introduction of the phrase least;" so that the entire expression of my opinion may be put thus:-"I solemnly believe that a state church in India would prove a greater hindrance to the gospel than paganism; or, if not so, there would, at least, be this comparative disadvantage in contending with the evils incidental to it; namely, that while the evils of paganism are external to Christianity, and the objects of its direct attack, those of secular religious establishments are within Christianity itself, protected and cherished by the very influences which ought to destroy and eradi cate them." I think it is my opinion so expressed that should have been made the subject of animadversion, if any animadversion was due to it; I frankly ask, however, your revered and distinguished correspondent himself, as well as your readers generally, whether any reasonable fault is to I am, &c.,

be found with it.

London, Feb. 3rd, 1858.

J. H. HINTON.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE BIBLE. of human consciousness-as developed in the article on which your correspondent animadverts, logically involves or potentially contains the truths of the gospel, and that therefrom the facts of the life of Christ and the doctrine of his death can be educed, the charge is utterly unfounded, and the inference entirely unwarranted. So far from sharing the sentiment imputed to me, I acknowledge that even the revealed law of Sinai-a much fuller revelation of the Divine will than is the law of nature—was unable to point out the way of salvation to guilty man. As I have written before, "the truths, like the facts, of the sacred Scripture, come from without the province in which consciousness reigns supreme." Whatever else, therefore, this doctrine of human consciousness involves, it is innocent of an assumption of the authority of revelation, understanding by revelation the word made known to us by prophets and apostles.

To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. MY DEAR SIR,- takes exception to my statements respecting the relation ship of Human Consciousness to the Bible on two grounds. First, he objects to my definition of consciousness itself. Whether he gives a better definition than mine it is not for me to say. You point out in an editorial note, that the word is used in at least three different senses, and that I have taken it in one of those senses, he in another. Which of these uses of the word is the correct one is a question rather of lexicography than of theology. The "Baptist Magazine" is not the place for such a discussion. I may, however, refer him to Webster's Dictionary as warranting the use of the word in the sense in which I have employed it. Secondly, denounces as heterodoxy the opinion that " men have a rule of life within themselves." He regards all who entertain this opinion as setting aside the teachings of our sacred books." Have we, then, a rule of life within ourselves? This is a matter for individual inquiry. Our AGED MINISTERS, THEIR WIDOWS friend thinks we have not. In the words of a well-known writer, "It is possible(barely possible, I admit)—that a man may have remained ignorant or unconscious of the moral law within him." With all respect for the testimony of others, I should think any man mistaken who denied the existence of conscience within him. Good Bishop Butler, than whom a higher authority, less than apostolic, does not exist, says, "From his make, constitution, or nature, man is, in the strictest and most proper sense, a law unto himself. He hath the rule of right within." Should

object to these authors, because uninspired men, I quote the Apostle Paul. In his epistle to the Romans he speaks of those who "do by nature the things contained in the law," and assures us that "these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves." And if it be asked, How a law? an answer may be found in the statement, "Their conscience also bearing them witness." If the heathen had a rule of life, "written in their hearts," surely we are not less favoured. Christ did not come into the world to dethrone conscience in those who call him Lord.

I therefore accept the conclusion which — imputes to me. But I emphatically reject his inference. Because I believe that man has a rule of life within, I do not "direct him to himself as the original source of information on matters pertaining to salvation and eternal life." Except it can be shown that the law of conscience—which I regard as the main feature of the doctrine

I am, very truly, yours,

CHARLES WILLIAMS.

Accrington, Feb., 1858.

AND ORPHANS.

To the Editor of The Baptist Magazine.

DEAR SIR,-It has fallen to my lot on more than one occasion to write to some of our denominational friends on behalf of the widows and orphans of some of our deceased ministers. This has suggested some thoughts which I desire respectfully to lay before your readers. In more than one instance, I have been asked by churches, during the interregnum between one minis ter's labours and the initiation of his successor (a period, by the way, which seldom shows off the "Christ-like" spirit of our churches with much advantage to what we call "the world")-to name a minister who was "movable" and likely to suit them. I have named such as ap peared to be likely to fill the vacancy well; but if a name belonged to one who might be verging on fifty, although in no other respect objectionable I have met this reply,-"Oh! he won't suit us, he is too old; we must have a young man ;" a reply mournfully suggestive of many sad things. This stereotyped phrase is certainly a very heartless one, and shows that many, could they have the choice now, would prefer a youthful and brilliant Apollos to "such an one as Paul the aged." Cases are not wanting in which there has been an uneasy restlessness to get rid of a minister simply because he was old, the people seeming to forget that he had spent perhaps his best energies in their service. It is to be feared that the pathetic prayer which David ad