blessed him; and to him also the expression of our gratitude is due for his continuous and effective services in the benevolent work to which his powers and attainments are devoted.

Amidst so much competition the Committee feel bound to congratulate both the Editor and the Union, on the amount of profit derived from the Magazines during the last year; £1,046 28. 9d. have been realized, £434 of which were yesterday appropriated to forty-seven senior brethren in the ministry, whose circumstances, after many years of consecrated labour, render this grant an acceptable alleviation of their pressing necessities; the remaining sum, amounting to £612, is applied to the Fund for Deferred Annuities. The application of brethren for the benefit of these annuities will be duly considered by the distributing Committee at the next Autumnal Meeting.

While thankful for the amount of usefulness accomplished, your Committee still thinks that the circulation of these Magazines might be greatly enlarged, and the spiritual benefit resulting from them increased and more widely diffused, if ministers, deacons, and churchmembers would occasionally give them their recommendation.

AUTUMNAL MEETINGS.

The Autumnal Meetings at Southampton were numerously attended, and the members of the Union cordially welcomed and hospitably entertained, not only by the churches and congregations of our order, but by many friends of different denominations, who kindly and generously assisted in providing for the comfort and refreshment of strangers.

The Assembly had to deplore the absence of the President for the year, the Rev. Dr. Morison, whose health and strength, the Committee rejoice to say, have since, under the Divine blessing, been greatly recruited. The assembly had also to deplore the absence of the Rev. A. Wells, who has since been taken to his rest. We cannot here refrain from adverting to the holy delight that he felt at the prospect of the Southampton meetings, and the hallowed associations that filled his heart to overflowing when he thought of Watts; these are touchingly set forth in the May report of last year,— the last drawn up by his hand,—the last effort of that order of his gifted mind.

To the Rev. Thomas Binney your Committee feel deeply indebted for the prompt and obliging manner in which he undertook, in the absence of Dr. Morison, to fill the office of Chairman, a promptitude that greatly relieved their anxiety and facilitated their arrangements.

The interest of the meetings was increased by the presence and statements of the Rev. Louis Bridel, of Paris, who appeared as the representative of the Union of the Evangelical Churches of France; with this Union a correspondence had been opened, its Committee having pressed for a delegate, as the representative of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, to its general meeting held on the 24th of August last. At this time your President and both your Secretaries were in ill health; this fact, together with the difficulty of obtaining a delegate well-versed in the French language, at a season when so many brethren are absent from home, induced your Secretaries to take upon themselves the responsibility of declining

to accede to this request; at the same time expressing the sympathy of our churches with theirs, and the hope that at some not very distant period, we might be able to meet their desires: the same opportunity was embraced to reciprocate their kind invitation, and to assure them of the cordial greeting with which a delegate from their Union would be received at Southampton, and the sincere pleasure which his communications would afford to our Assembly. With this invitation our brethren complied, and, as before intimated, a deep and thrilling interest was awakened in the minds of those who were privileged to attend.

A large assembly was delighted and instructed by the elaborate and beautiful paper, read by Josiah Conder, Esq., in commemoration of the labours and services of Dr. Watts; this paper has since been published under the title of "The Poet of the Sanctuary," and will doubtless be frequently read with delight and profit, not only because it embalms the memory of Dr. Watts, but because it supplies an instructive and compendious history of Psalmody through many ages and in many kingdoms.

CONGREGATIONAL BOARD OF EDUCATION.

The following resolution was referred from the Assembly at Southampton:

"That it be an instruction to the Committee of the Union, to confer with the Committee of the Congregational Board of Education on the proposed junction of the Voluntary School Association with that Board, with the view, if possible, to prevent such junction until after the Annual Assembly in May next."

Conformably with this resolution, conferences between the Committee of the Union and the Congregational Board of Education were held, the result of which is that the proposed junction has been declined, and the connection between the Congregational Union and the Congregational Board of Education continued; the Committee therefore, feeling that all possible support should be afforded by the Union to the Congregational Board of Education in carrying out their arduous and important object, has recorded the following resolution :

"That the Committee of the Congregational Union, anxious that the churches of our denomination should take their full share in the work of popular education, views the efficient training of young persons of both sexes by the Congregational Board of Education with much interest, and trusts that it will speedily obtain an annual income commensurate with its requirements.

"At the present juncture of its history, Congregational collections are strongly recommended, as affording a favourable opportunity of bringing the subject of education before the members of our churches, and, as the Board has retained its original constitution agreeably to the feeling expressed at the last Autumnal Meeting of the Union, it is hoped that the plan proposed will be generally and cordially responded to."

It is not necessary on this subject to enlarge, as the Report of the Board will be presented to this Assembly, followed by a resolution bringing this question under consideration.

THE CENSUS.

The Act for taking the Census in 1851 was

submitted to the Committee, together with a letter from Thomas Mann, Esq., of the General Register Office, asking the assistance of the Union in furtherance of the Government scheme to obtain accurate statistical information. The following resolution was passed and forwarded to the General Register Office, authorizing Mr. Mann to make such use of it as to him might appear best adapted to answer the desired end :

"That this Committee, judging it to be of the utmost importance that correct moral statistics of the kingdom should be obtained, would hereby express their hearty concurrence in the proposal of the Government to obtain a return of all places of public worship, and the number of the attendants, on the 30th of March next; and would earnestly recommend all the secretaries and ministers of the associations, in connection with the Congregational Union of England and Wales, to co-operate with the official enumerators in obtaining strictly correct returns on all points required by the Government, and detailed in the schedules issued by the authority of the Secretary of State."

The receipt of this resolution at the General Register Office was acknowledged by the secretary, with best thanks to the Committee for their kind co-operation.

Few are the opportunities now afforded for mutual and fraternal intercourse with associated bodies of other Evangelical Christians-a fellowship much to be desired, when and where practicable. Concerning our brethren of the Congregational Union of Scotland, we shall receive some report from the Rev. Dr. Halley, who, at the urgent request of the Committees of both the Scottish and the English Unions, consented, as our representative, to present to the Congregational Union of Scotland, at its Annual Meeting, our fraternal salutation, to assure them of our sympathy in all their Christian labours and trials, and of our earnest prayer for their spiritual prosperity.

PUBLICATIONS.

Your Committee will now direct your attention to the publications of the Union, and ask kind aid in promoting their sale. It appears from the last year's balance-sheet, that £155 58. Sd., the amount of profit derived from the Publication Fund, within the preceding eighteen months, was appropriated to the current expenses of the Union, a sum which, like the profits of the Magazines, would have been devoted to purposes of benevolence, had the annual subscriptions and donations been equivalent to the annual expenditure; a powerful argument this, both for increased subscriptions and the more extensive circulation of our books. The Hymn-Book still maintains a large sale, a proof that it has secured a favourable reception in our churches as a supplement to the incomparable Dr. Watts. Attention has already been called to one beautiful edition of this book, suited to the young, bound up with Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns, unabridged, in one volume, comprised within the thickness of half an inch. It should not be forgotten that this hymn-book contains 120 hymns suited to family and private worship, thus rendering devotional aid in the closet and at the domestic altar, as well as in the sanctuary,-the book of the heart at home and abroad! The same

editions of Watts and the Congregational Hymn-Book have been bound with the Bible in one beautiful volume, adapted to the young, and forming a very useful and acceptable present.

The Year-Book is by all parties confessedly a book of great interest, and replete with denominational information, yet its sale, though published at so low a price, and at so great a loss, has not this year reached 3,500.

The sale of the Congregational Church Records continues steady and encouraging, and will, doubtless, increase as our churches discover its value in the facility with which it enables them to arrange, record, and preserve their diversified documents.

There yet remain on sale a few complete sets of the Hanbury Memorials,-a work which ought to have a place in the library of every Nonconformist minister, and which would be a very useful and acceptable present to any pastor who may not find it convenient to purchase these volumes.

The proposal for publishing the entire works of the Rev. John Robinson, under the superintendence of the Revs. Dr. Campbell and Robert Ashton, as recommended at the last Autumnal Meeting, finds acceptance with the denomination; and the Committee are happy to state that 2,000 copies have been subscribed for, that the work has been put to press, and will be published as early as possible in the ensuing autumn. The subscription list will be closed on Monday next, before which time, it is hoped, that all persons desirous of being subscribers, will have sent their names either to the Rev. Robert Ashton, the editor, or to Mr. Snow, the publisher.

NEXT AUTUMNAL MEETING.

The Committee have unfeigned pleasure in announcing that the next Autumnal Meeting (D.V.) will be held at Northampton. It will be in the recollection of many that an opinion was generally expressed at Southampton, that it would be exceedingly appropriate, and much to be desired, that the Provincial Meeting immediately succeeding that convened at the birthplace of Dr. Watts, should be held at the place associated with the labours of the revered Dr. Doddridge; and especially as the period of assembling will be worthy of note, as the centenary of his death. In this proposal the ministers and friends at Northampton have kindly and heartily concurred, and stand prepared to welcome the Union on that occasion, when our brother, well-known for his records of Spiritual Heroism, will furnish a memorial of Doddridgea suitable companion to the Poet of the Sanctuary-to lie on the same table-to be read with equal zest-kindling in our minds the same love to these eminent men which they, when they lived, so uniformly cherished towards each other.

MEMBERSHIP.

The membership of churches with this Union your Committee would earnestly press upon the serious consideration of ministers, deacons, and delegates now present. To all who approve of this Union the importance of this subject must be apparent, not for financial reasons only, but because it would conduce so essentially to the furtherance of the great objects spiritual, ecclesiastical, and civil, originally proposed in the formation of this Christian fellowship.

Since the revised constitution was adopted, in

1847, the number of churches represented appears small, probably from forgetfulness in not sending the required annual subscriptions, the omission of which, by any church, prevents that church from appearing in the annual report, as accuracy requires that the list of subscriptions should harmonize with the balance-sheet. It should be noted that neither a maximum or minimum of subscription is stipulated as the condition of fellowship; each church is asked to give according to its ability, or as in its judgment the claims of the Union may demand, while equal privileges are accorded to all; the church that subscribes only five shillings, equally with the church that subscribes five pounds, can send its minister, and, in proportion to the number of its members, its delegates to discuss and vote on every question; thus maintaining the representative character of the Union, showing that the basis of our fellowship is Christian principle, and that the love of Christ and of each other is the bond that holds all in one accord, and preserves to each the full exercise of religious freedom.

Independency has been reproached for being deficient in the coherence of its parts; for separating into distinct, if not repugnant, particles what ought to be a compact whole; for exhibiting a series of fractions, incapable of being brought out into unity, and by consequence, for being offensive for its divisions, and, in cases of emergency, ineffective by its weakness. It has even on this account been attacked as hostile to the spirit of Christianity, which it professes to embody in its institutions."-(“Gilbert's Life of Dr. Williams.") But in refutation of this charge, we may appeal to our longstanding County Associations, and to the continuance of this Union, which in 1842 was reported to comprise, in England alone, 31 associations, comprehending 879 churches. Among religious demominations the honour belongs to Congregationalism alone to combine in one grand Union numerous independent churches, without the assumption of legislative authority, and without the infringement of individual liberty; a Union alike estranged from priestly domination and sectarian intolerance; while at the same time, in common with other Christians, it can hold communion with all whom God has "called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ, and can fervently invoke the Divine benediction upon all who are labouring in Christ's vineyard."

That the Congregational Union of England and Wales may be honoured to present such a spectacle to the world, is most ardently to be wished in these stirring times, when diocesan episcopacy is putting forth such claims, and all its officials, from the prelate to the acolyte, assuming, independent of the people, exclusive authority.

If men have argued from our defective combination that our church polity is unscriptural, might not such a spectacle awaken inquiry, lead to diligent research, and end in the conviction that our model of church government stands forth prominently in the inspired volume ?

BRITISH MISSIONS.

As the Secretary of the Board of British Missions will present you with a condensed account of their proceedings and prospects, your Committee fuel it unnecessary to poopy time

in the Assembly, or space in the Report, beyond a simple statement that these societies continue to find favour with the churches, and to receive renewed tokens of the Divine approval of the zealous and devoted labours of their ministers.

As the Autumnal Meeting is the season for presenting the financial report of the Union, the Committee will only for a moment advert to the necessity of a considerably increased amount of subscriptions and donations, before the current income will meet the current expenditure, and thus leave all proâts arising from the publications to be appropriated to purposes of benevolence.

There yet remains one subject of importance to which the attention of the Assembly is invited before the Report is concluded.

SECRETARY.

On the 2nd of January last a Confidential Committee was appointed to consider and adopt such measures as to them might appear most likely to obtain the person best suited to succeed in the Secretaryship of the late Rev. Algernon Wells, and to report progress to the General Committee as frequently as to themselves might be deemed necessary or desirable. This subject was under consideration for upwards of three months, during which period several special meetings were held, and the question viewed, as far as the Committee was able, in all its bearings.

On the 22nd of April the following Report was presented to the General Committee:

"The Confidential Committee appointed to recommend a successor in the place of the Rev. Algernon Wells, as Secretary of the Union, after repeated and careful deliberation, beg unanimously to recommend to the General Committee that the Rev. Geo. Smith, of Poplar, be nominated to the office of Secretary for the ensuing year.

(Signed)

"B. HANBURY, Chairman."

This Report was immediately considered and discussed, when, after due deliberation, it was resolved,

"That the Report of the Sub-Committee be adopted, and that, in accordance with that Report, the Rev. Geo. Smith be recommended by the General Committee as Secretary of the Union for the ensuing year."

This recommendation, embodied in the form of a resolution, will be this morning submitted to the decision of the Assembly.

Your Committee will no longer detain the Meeting from the important matters that now demand its time and attention, but will close this brief narrative of the transactions of the past year with a thankful acknowledgment of the goodness of God, with earnestly commending the interests of the Union to its successors in office, to the pastors and churches throughout the kingdom, and pre-eminently, in fervent prayer, to the support, the guidance, blessing, and approval of Him, who, having purchased the Church with "his own blood," is now seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, who hath put all things under his feet, and who is constituted Head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all,

reason, Scripture, fact, and experience, while it opens the flood-gates to every delusion. Indeed, if such be the faith of the Gospel, it strikes us that eminence in piety, of such an origin, is likely to be in the inverse proportion of good sense and sound reason; and it will be found in this as in other things, that extremes meet, and that it may here be said as of Popery, that "Ignorance is the mother of devotion," and that where reason ends religion begins! We shall not enlarge upon a subject which so insults the intelligence of Scripture students; but shall proceed,

II. WITH THE STATEMENT AND ELU

CIDATION OF WHAT WE CONSIDER TO BE

THE TRUTH.

The thing attested here is our Sonship -that we are children of God. The witnesses that testify this are here said to be two-the Spirit of God and our own spirit. The witness of our own spirit is in the nature of the case the first, and this has been explained already.

What is here called the witness is the same as that which is elsewhere called the seal-alluding to the seal of princes, the instrument by which the subject was advanced to favour-peculiar, inimitable, distinguishable, regal, an effectual confirmation of a special distinction. This seal is of a character which admits of no counterfeit to the eye that distinguishes all things; whatever is said of the witness must therefore admit of being affirmed of the seal. The import of the word must be explained by the indubitable characters of the thing. This witness is not by words, but by works, and the neglect of this fact is at the root of all the mischief which has mixed itself up with the subject; and hence the disposition to magnify doubtful suggestions, spiritual impulses, and mystic intimation as constituting the witness of the Spirit of God. God is said, in Heb. ii. 4, to bear witness "with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost." God's witness here is not vocal; it does not consist of assertions, but of evidences, of proofs which, after all, constitute the most impressive and indubitable language. In the Acts of the Apostles, xiv. 3, we are told, that "they abode long time speaking boldly in the name of the Lord, who gave testimony to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands." Here, then, a testimony is borne, a testimony of Divine origin to the truth of the communication. In this case miracles

not words were evidences, and not only evidences in themselves, they mightily served to fortify the Apostolic word. The Lord himself, in John v. 36, says, " I have greater witness than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me." Here, again, deeds, not words, are employed to bear testimony. Again, in John x. 25, the Saviour says, "The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me." Their silent testimony was nevertheless the testimony of irresistible power.

Now in perfect accordance with this is the witness of the Spirit. The Spirit's seal does not denote a voice, or suggestion, but a moral effect, a spiritual mark, by which the people of God are known. Its appeal is to the eye, and to the ear. The seals of princes were the marks of princes. The voice from heaven directed the angel in the Revelations thus: "Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads; "a thing not uncustomary, and which from the place of the impress, was always most noticeable, presenting itself at once to the eye of the beholder. "Set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for the abominations that are done in the midst thereof."

The seal of the Spirit, then, is the stamp of holiness. This impress of God is the evidence of sonship. Their looks proclaim their lineage; his own image is his own seal. Ancient seals had both the image and superscription of him whose seal it was. Thus it is that the seal of the Spirit is the witness of the Spirit.

The seal of the Spirit is also the earnest, or foretaste, or fruit; it is grace and heaven in the heart; and, therefore, cannot be any voice, impulse, or impression. It is written that "He hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." And again, "In whom having believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance." earnest is holy love, eternal life, everlasting glory, full fruition of good, something of the most exalted kind, which supplies every good and excludes every evil. Thus, then, having shown that the gracious and sanctifying influence of the Spirit of God is that which is meant by the witness, we shall now endeavour to

That

III. CONFIRM THE TRUTH BY AN AP